The band Slipknot announced a new album, which is due on September 30 on the Roadrunner label. Before the release of the album, several singles had already been released for which the video clips were filmed, and they were directed by one of the band’s musicians, Shawn “Clown” Crahan.
The new album, called “The End, So Far,” is produced by the band itself and Joe Barresi.
After the announcement of the album, when its title became known, and after the words of Crahan, who stated that it is “new music, new art and new beginnings. Get ready for the end,” there was a perception among many fans that this was the end of the band itself. Vocalist Corey Taylor immediately clarified the situation, saying that it kind of just means the end of a certain era for Slipknot, but not the end of the band itself. This raises another question, though – what is the next era for Slipknot?
In a recent interview, Taylor said the new album marks the end of a period of grief for the band. It appears to be about the deaths of bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison, as well as the departure of percussionist Chris Fehn.
I believe an era can end with a change in lineup, but at the same time, you can still have the end of one era and the beginning of another with the same bandmembers. So, to me, it can be a reflection of the fact that you have different members or you’re just moving in a different direction. For me, it’s more about just letting the fans know that we will be back and to remind them that you just never know what you’re gonna get with us.
I mean, every album has always felt different; it’s always sounded different. And to me, I feel like this era is more about us dealing with the grief that we’ve had to deal with and now kind of getting to the point where we can now move on comfortably into the future, and it’s not about that. It’s a part of our history now; it’s not our narrative.
And now we can kind of move on and kind of see what the future holds for Slipknot, musically where we can go now. Because of the way we’ve done things, we’ve set it up so we can go in any direction we want, and as long as it comes from the heart, it doesn’t matter. So that’s kind of the era, I think, that’s being set up now. The next era will definitely be more of like a ‘gloves off, let’s just see what happens and go for it.
Also, we recently learned that the readers of Modern Drummer magazine voted Jay Weinberg as the #1 drummer in the 2022 edition’s poll. Congratulations to him, and we’re looking forward to the new album!
