Slipknot stretches for third albumTue 17 February, 2004 08:29




By Bram Teitelman
NEW YORK (Billboard) - "People are either going to love this or hate it," Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor says of the band's as-yet-untitled third Roadrunner album, due in May.
"We've never been a middle of the road band, and we're either going down in history or going down in flames with this."
Having enlisted Rick Rubin to produce the album, the band is working for the first time without producer Ross Robinson. Taylor said the difference between the two producers has been noticeable.
"Where Ross is with you all the time, Rick just leaves you to your own devices, then comes in, takes a listen to things, and says 'You're going the right way,' or 'Why don't you try this?'" Taylor says.
"But at the end of the day, they're both going for the vibe, what people are going to feel. A good producer is a fan of music, and knows what people are going to feel."
Taylor says Rubin pushed Slipknot into directions they hadn't been before.
"Lo and behold, we had some really good slow stuff, and some good three-part harmonies in us. But at the same time, we've still got the metal, the same double bass and percussion, the same crazy noises coming out of Sid and Craig. Not to mention, this is probably the best guitar playing that Mick and Jim have ever done. This album has everything, and it will, I hope, become everything. Right now, it's probably the best thing I've ever heard."
Although the album took six months to record, Taylor says it was worth the wait.
"The fire's there, the darkness is there, and the craziness is there, but it's also mature, and it's sonically the best-sounding thing we've ever done," he says.
"We're taking a lot more chances, but still staying true to what we do. borrowing not only from our metal roots, but from our rock roots, and our Pink Floyd roots. You can hear influences of everyone from Slayer to Amen to King Crimson."
Since the 2001 release of Slipknot's sophomore album, "Iowa," the nine-piece act has dabbled in other pursuits. Four of its members were in side projects, including Taylor's Stone Sour.
When the band reconvened in September, "Some of us hadn't seen each other in a year, and there was some wariness as to whether or not we were actually going to be able to do this again," Taylor says.
"But once we reconnected, it was like 1998 again, going and doing the first album, feeling the excitement, being stoked, and not knowing what was going to happen the next day. I think we all needed to feel that we did miss playing together, we did miss each other, and we did miss writing together."
The new album was recorded in a mansion that once belonged to magician Harry Houdini. "The mansion is brilliant when you're making an album, but it's a little weird when you're trying to sleep," Taylor says.
That weirdness included a ghost sighting.
"The thing about ghosts is when they manifest, they take on two different forms," Taylor says. "They either take on the human ethereal form, or they take on the form of an orb: round, white spheres that you can sometimes see in the air. One night, the thermostat in my room turned itself up from 65 to 75. And at the exact second it did that, I had taken a picture of one side of the room, and caught two orbs on film right next to the thermostat. To make sure it wasn't a flare, I took another picture, and they were gone. A split second later, brand new batteries that I'd just put into the camera were dead."
Slipknot will road test the new material on the Jagermeister Music Tour, kicking off March 30, and on this summer's Ozzfest.
And while a band that wears uniforms and masks can hardly be called subtle, Taylor says Slipknot will be bringing the show down a notch or two.
"With 'Iowa,' there was just so much stuff that we had to take with us, that in my opinion, it took away from the band itself," he says.
"People forgot why we made a name for ourselves as a live band in the first place, which was basically all nine of us on a stage going apes---. Basically this is us stripping it down and coming back and giving it to you the way it is. We're going back to go forward."
There's been conjecture that the next album might be the band's last, which Taylor doesn't dismiss.
"It still may be the last album, but we're not thinking about that anymore," he says. "We're thinking about going out on the road, playing for a bunch of our friends and getting the album out. Then we'll take a break, go do our respective stuff and get together and see if we're still into it."