A few days ago, we posted a quote from Corey Taylor, calling the just released Slipknot album, We Are Not Your Kind, the best album from the band since Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. We posed the question: did Corey not like Slipknot's last two releases?
While Taylor conceded there were some great songs on the album, as a whole both albums didn't click for him. He went into more detail about the trials and tribulations of the last two albums in recent interview with Loudwire, saying:
When we did All Hope is Gone we were just really lucky to get an album out of that because of all the turmoil that was going on in the band at the time. There are some great, great songs on that album. But cohesively, it just wasn’t there. And then .5 was us going, “God, do we even want to do this anymore?” It was almost a rediscovery. It didn’t have the same kind of urgency as our earlier albums.
Again, there were great songs, but it didn’t have that same energy that we were trying to capture. And it’s only in retrospect when you really start listening to stuff back to back that you realize that, “Yeah, man there was something there.” And maybe it’s because there was a mournful vibe to it that it had that.
He also revealed there was a version of All Hope Is Gone that he really liked that got voted down by other members of the band.
The funny thing about All Hope is Gone is that it was a power struggle, basically. Without naming names, I was stuck in the middle. It was almost like being a friend of the Montagues and the Capulets, for Christ sakes. I was standing in the middle going, “Uh, what’s going on here? Why can’t we at least pull some of these threads to knit this together?”
I actually put together a mix of songs from both houses that really worked. There were six songs from each session and there was a really cool, atmospheric, amazing version of All Hope is Gone that was rejected outright by a couple of people in the band. It was really sad for me. It was very much a case of take your toys and go home. And it made life miserable in that band for a while. As much as we were trying to make an album, it seemed like everyone was trying to make their album, and it was heartbreaking. And then you fast forward to .5 and we’re just trying to pick up the pieces and see what happens.
Taylor added that the new album was "a joy to put together" and the best he's felt about the band since Vol. 3. Stream the album here.
