Slipknot has slowly been gearing up with new music, though its been made pretty clear that the band won't hit the studio until at least 2018. This is due to vocalist Corey Taylor's commitments to Stone Sour, and once he's all wrapped up with the Hydrograd touring cycle, then the Slipknot train will rev the engines once more.
In an interview with NME, Shawn "Clown" Crahan says the band has about 27 songs in various forms, with about eight or nine completed. He also says Slipknot is "not going to wait around for Corey Taylor to say that he’s ready," which other media outlets are taking way out of context. Clown seems to be saying the band isn't waiting for Corey Taylor to help write the new stuff, not that they're going to carry on without him.
I will give you this – we have decided to do things differently. Our label had been bought and sold, people who used to give me advice are gone now, we’re still standing. We’re not going to wait around for Corey Taylor to say that he’s ready, no one’s going to wait for me to finish directing a movie, the same thing goes if someone wants to go out on tour with someone else.
Every three or four months we’ve been getting together and we’ve been writing for up to 30 days. Currently, we have about 27 pieces of work – about seven or eight are completed. They’re not completed songs, that’s far from the truth. That’s where people start fighting over Corey Taylor not being there or Jim wanting to do something else. We as artists have demanded that we get together every three or four months and blow our brains out with art. We’ve been trying to create as much art as possible.
Clown says the band sans Taylor will meet up in September to "to start working on those 27 pieces of music and we’re going to add to that," and that he'd like to have either a double album or a concept album.
Clown adds that he's "been speaking to Corey and Jim and we’re not just going to ‘do it’, we’re not going to be contrived," which is great. Why put out a double album or concept album for the sake of putting out a double album or concept album if it's gonna suck?