Slipknot have said they plan to release a new album in 2019, and it looks as if things are going according to schedule.
M. Shaun "Clown" Crahan has said he and Jim Root are actively working on Slipknot songs and sending them to Corey Taylor via email. In past interviews, Clown noted there are 27 new song ideas floating and as of the the beginning of November, Clown claims the band have seven or eight songs completed. Corey Taylor is now doing his part as well.
Taylor shared a photo on Instagram with the caption "Working… #slipknot"
In an interview with Musik Universe last month, Corey Taylor was asked if he had heard any of the music Crahan was working on:
"Yeah, I have. It's awesome. That's all I'm gonna say about it. It's everything I wanted it to be. They've been sending me stuff here and there. And it's so funny too, because they're, like, 'We don't wanna send you anything till it's ready.' And I'm, like, 'All right. All right.' I've been very patient. I've gotten about six songs now, and they're really, really good. And just in kind of that demo form. And by 'demo,' I mean really just the fact that it's maybe a little longer than it will end up. Because what you wanna do is you wanna take that idea and extrapolate it to the point where you've exhausted every kind of idea. And then you kind of take it and you shorten it and you break it down and you formulate it and you get it to a little more solid, a little more fluid. And that's where it's at right now."
Corey Taylor then added he is currently working on lyrics to three new songs that will appear on the next album.
"And it's dark — it's really dark," he said. "It's probably the most autobiographical I've been in years. Just for the fact that I've been through a lot the last few years and I've been sitting on a lot. So I'm writing from the standpoint of where I am now instead of where I was. Which is so easy to tap into sometimes and it's so easy to just kind of go there almost on impulse. But now, I'm writing it from the standpoint of a man who's been through a lot — not just a young man, but an older man — and trying to figure things out."
Taylor also assured Musik Universe that the album will "absolutely" arrive next year saying "2019, sometime in that year we will definitely be recording i. We'll finish writing it, record it and be ready to go on the road."
Taylor was also asked about Clown's assessment that the next Slipknot album may be Clown's last and if Taylor felt the same way:
"We all kind of say that," Taylor explained. "I've said it in the past. We've always said — and this is not in a negative way — we've always said that when we get to the point where we physically can't do Slipknot the way we want to do it, we'll stop. And for some of us, the years of being in Slipknot have taken [their] toll. Cold mornings kick my ass. My neck, my knees, my hips… [DJ] Sid [Wilson] has broken every damn bone in his body. Clown, he's had his share of health issues and whatnot and physicality. We've all had an injury in this band — from our necks to our retinas. And honestly, if that was his decision, I wouldn't do Slipknot without him — absolutely not."
He continued "There's a certain mentality that goes into Slipknot, and he started it. He's always been the vision for this band, for Slipknot, and without that, it crumbles. So, yeah, if he left, that would be it for me as well. And I say that, honestly, in a very positive way, because none of us would want to continue doing it from a half-assed point of view. Nobody wants to go 50 percent on a Slipknot album."
