You might recall how last year Corey Taylor subtly threw shade at his Slipknot and Stone Sour bandmates by noting his recent new solo record was "probably the most enjoyable album that I've done since the first Slipknot album." Well, a recent retrospective about Slipknot's sophomore release, Iowa helps puts those comments in perspective.
The new issue of Metal Hammer magazine has a long feature about the making of, arguably, Slipknot's heaviest album and the magazine released some interesting quotes from both Taylor and Clown. The two expanded on the problems the band members faced personally on that record.
The lead quote in that article has Clown saying “When we did Iowa, we hated each other. We hated the world. The world hated us.”
Taylor would say “We were just all at odds with each other. I don’t know if it was jealousy or if it was just insecurity; ‘Am I pulling my weight? Is this person getting more attention than me?’ It was just dark, and it really spit in the face of everything the band tried to accomplish on the first album.”
Clown added “It was a backlash for our dream. We spent 18 months on that first cycle doing all these interviews, agents, managers… it was all performance.
“By the time we got to the second album, people needed to be curbed and understand their place and that their opinion didn’t matter as much as they thought it did. Just because we were the first platinum band on Roadrunner doesn’t give everyone the ability to start advising. When we were home to take a breath, it was clear that [the second album] was gonna be disturbing and force-fed to the world.”
With all the success of their debut album and the pressure for a follow-up, you can see how that pressure could get to the Slipknot members, leading to such personnel issues. Ultimately, the band clearly figured out the right flow and are as successful as ever.
