Artist Interview

Slipknot appear on the cover of the latest issue of Revolver, which is on newsstands now and available online. As the band prepares to unleash its highly anticipated new album, '.5: The Gray Chapter' (check out the new tracks "The Negative One" and "The Devil in I"), Revolver is looking back on the making of each of the masked maniacs' previous records.

MORE SLIPKNOT: Read about the making of their 1999 self-titled album. Read about the Making of 'Iowa.'

Here, band members who played on 2004′s 'Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)''–including deceased bassist Paul Gray and ex-drummer Joey Jordison–look back on the now-classic record, which includes songs like "Duality," "Before I Forget," and "Vermilion." The piece originally ran in our 2011 'Book of Slipknot' special issue.

By Jon Wiederhorn

To help them expand beyond the hatred, disgust, and total metal overload they had captured with producer Ross Robinson, Slipknot recruited studio guru Rick Rubin, who had previously worked with everyone from Slayer to Johnny Cash, to record a new album that's undeniably vicious and creepy but also features enough mid-paced hooks and vocal harmonies to bring the band back closer to the mainstream. The results are still hardly conventional or comfortable, however: Even unrepentantly radio-friendly numbers like "Vermilion Pt. 2" and "Duality" are filled with experimental touches and undeniable darkness.

JOEY JORDISON Me and Paul demoed a bunch of songs. I flew down to Los Angeles and arrived expecting to practice. I walk in and Corey says, "No, I'm going to the Rainbow [Bar & Grill, the famous L.A. rock-and-roll hangout]." And Shawn says, "No, I'm working on something else." I'm like, "What the fuck?! We're not fuckin' jamming?" So I go get a bottle of Jack Daniel's and drink myself into oblivion. Then I wake up at 3 o'clock the next day and say, "Right, let's jam," and no one wants to. It took us three fuckin' months before everyone came together.

COREY TAYLOR For the most part, I pushed everybody away. I would drink all day and then go to the bar at night. I was the quintessential lead singer. You were gonna cater to my ego and tell me everything was great. And that's so not who I am. Honestly. I never wanted to be like that. I would keep a bottle of Jack next to my fucking bed every day. Instead of figuring out why I was upset, I just drowned in it. I was cheating on my girl at the time—didn't give a shit. I just wanted to feel something other than terrible.

SID WILSON Like some of the other guys, I went through some relationship problems and started drinking and smoking reefer really heavily, nonstop all day to deal with the depression. I'd stay up for three days straight. Then I'd pass out for a day and continue the cycle until I realized a year later that there's a lot worse things than being on the pity pot. I started playing piano and that was a good release for me—getting rid of the depression through the keys.

PAUL GRAY I wrote a bunch of stuff—like I do every record—but I would spend half the time in the bathroom doing drugs. I'd try to play and I'd fall out of my chair a couple times and fall asleep in the middle of tracking a fucking song. It was pretty bad. I was severely depressed because, after 'Iowa,' we were sick of each other and there was so much hate going around. I didn't feel that way. I wasn't mad at anybody, but everyone else was. And I kind of felt like, Oh, fuck, my family is moving away from each other. I thought the band might break up. I was like, What would I do? This has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I've never wanted to leave this. I'd hear someone say, "Fuck it, I'm quitting. I'm out," and that would fuckin' freak me out. I'd be like, Fuck, what are we gonna do now? Those problems always worked themselves out, but I'd dig myself in deeper holes. And then finally, all that had to stop or I knew I was gonna die. But once you get to a certain point, it's fuckin' so hard going through withdrawal. It's so bad. It's not that you don't want to quit. You just can't.

TAYLOR I was out of control for a while. One night, I was throwing shot glasses at people all night at the Rainbow. They were on the verge of banning me, and I had no idea I was so fucking out of it. We left and I was running down the street with my friend. We get to the corner of Sunset and Larrabee, right across the street from the Viper Room. And we see a big beeper-shop window, and my friend goes, "Man, I bet you could put your foot right through that." So I said, "Yeah?" Crash! Kicked it wide open. It was like slo-mo. I turned around and a cop was sitting at the stoplight. And I just wandered over and put my hands on the fucking hood. I've got black makeup running down my face. I'm barely dressed. I am fucking 200 pounds and I don't give a shit about anything. So they cuff me and sit me in front of the Viper Room and all these Hollywood people are coming up and laughing at me. I started spitting at them. The cop's laughing but trying to keep me from doing it. They took me to the station and all I wanted to do was piss. So I kept making them take me to the bathroom, which was delaying my fingerprinting process. In that time, my buddy managed to work out a deal with the owners of the beeper shop that if I paid for the window right away, they wouldn't press charges. So I'm just about to be processed, I'm on the verge of L.A. County fucking Jail and they get the call, help me put my clothes back on—because I was getting in the orange suit. I stumble across Sunset with a fistful of gnarly money and I drunkenly slur an apology. I go back home and pass out and I wake up and go, Oh my God, what the fuck just happened?

JIM ROOT I was in a horrible state of mind. I would lock myself in my bedroom because I couldn't handle talking to anybody. I had panic attacks so bad my entire body would shut down and I had to isolate myself. We had just come off tour with Stone Sour. All of a sudden we gotta do 'Subliminal Verses' and I gotta be around these people I haven't talked to for a nearly two years. I had stopped doing drugs, I had stopped drinking, but my head was so fucked up that I saw a psychiatrist to help me cope. I would pick up on things that weren't even real and turn them into something that it wasn't. I was so inwardly focused I thought everything was about me. If Joey and Clown were talking, all of a sudden, in my head, they'd be talking shit about me.

SHAWN "CLOWN" CRAHAN 'Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)' was all about healing. Rick Rubin sat us down and we talked things out. I heard stuff from the other members I don't care to repeat. I gained a couple friends. I might have created a couple enemies. I knew where I stood with everybody. And since we were rebuilding friendships, it was real easy to rebuild the innovation of our music. We took some chances, but it wasn't like someone was guiding us. These are things we'd been wanting to do. Listen to that fucking record. It's spiritual. I love it even though I still didn't get what I felt I needed as an artist. I was like, "I need to create." They said, "You ain't creating." I went to Rick and he said, "Why don't you have a Pro Tools rig down there?" Next thing I know, dude's in my room with the gear, and we wrote the song "Danger—Keep Away" and it got cut in half. The whole song is on the digipack [special edition] with my vocals and the music I was trying to do. The best way to describe it is salvation and rejoicing in working again. It's like being an alcoholic and saying, "I need to get help." We knew we were gonna rebuild and we did.

MICK THOMSON Rick helped open a dialogue. People don't just walk up and spill their guts and then say, "I'm sorry." Rick was good at getting us all talking. He recognized he needed to take charge of the situation and it was like, "Good, now that that's behind us, let's write some fuckin' music and get back to being friends."

TAYLOR I wouldn't know what it's like to work with Rick Rubin. I only saw him about four times. Rick Rubin is a nice man. He's done a lot of good for a lot of people. He didn't do anything for me. I'm not happy with the vocals on that record. I didn't get a lot of say in anything. There were a lot of takes that I thought were much better than the ones they used. It sounds amazing, the songs are great. My performances could have been so much fucking better. And part of is my fault. I was coming out of a booze-induced coma. But I wasn't asked about a lot of shit. My melodic vocals sound very cool, my heavy vocals don't sound that great. And I regret that Rubin just wasn't there. He had eight different projects going on at the time. We were being charged horrendous amounts of money. And for me, if you're going to produce something, you're fucking there. I don't give a shit who you are.

ROOT As dark as that [time was for me], it was really amazing how attentive Rick Rubin was to us as a band. He knew I was going through a hard time. I never told him, but I got a knock on my bedroom door, and his assistant came up and he had this herbal calming drop that you put on your tongue to mellow out. A lot of the guys in the band say Rick was unavailable. And, yeah, he takes on a lot of projects at one time, but he also does things that are beneficial. He was listening and having us retrack things that needed work. He's kind of like Big Brother up on the hill. Even though he wasn't there physically every day, he was. And that's my favorite record we've done. We tried some things that were different and took some chances and they came out great. I was hoping we'd be able to evolve from that. I'm not sure that we have.

THOMSON People always say, "Oh, that record was so different. Did you want to do something more experimental or more melodic?" No, shit just happens, and at that point that's what came out. There's no rules. Our musical scope is very vast. Do you think the only thing the fucking nine of us can do is what you hear when we're together as Slipknot? We're all musicians. We can pretty much play everything. Can we play Texas blues? Of course we can. Am I gonna put that on the record? Fuck no, it doesn't fit. I don't understand people who go, "Oh, I love Metallica so I'll only listen to them." Metallica would tell you that's the stupidest thing you could ever fucking do. The shit Metallica listen to doesn't sound anything like Metallica. But shit, I can hear a cello piece and be inspired and then write something ridiculously brutal. It's just something that moves me to want to create something else.

TAYLOR We were in the studio three months and I hadn't laid down a stitch of vocals that I could call good. I was just so frustrated I was about quit the band. I was on the phone buying a plane ticket. It took Clown to talk me down. He said, "Look, we're gonna figure this out." Clown has always been kind of a father figure for me in a weird way even though we're only four years apart. I was going through a constant cycle of abuse and it culminated with me at the Hyatt on Sunset almost jumping out of an eighth-story window. If my buddy Tommy and my wife hadn't been there [to talk me down], I'd be dead. The next day I quit drinking for three years until me and my wife split up. I had such clarity in those three years because I had nothing to hide behind, and it took that sobriety to realize that my relationship was not for me. We had done too much damage to each other, and as much as we cared about each other, we were such gnarly personalities. I listen to 'Vol. 3' now and it's harder to listen to for me than 'Iowa' because of what I went through.

GRAY I ended up going to rehab halfway through 'Vol. 3.' It was down the street from where we were doing the record. The band had an intervention on me. Going through rehab kept me good for a little while and then we got back out on the road and I just knew too many people and I started using a lot again. I had some near-death experiences—nothing I'm gonna go into any detail about. And I had a few more stints of rehab here and there. I got left in rehab at the end of the arena tour with Shadows Fall and Lamb of God. It was the same place Lindsay Lohan went. I missed the last six shows of the tour. All of our techs can play guitar and bass and they all learned the songs and filled in for me. And that's when I really started going, Fuck, I need to figure my shit out.

CRAHAN My favorite part of touring [for Vol. 3] was the arena tour, and that got cut short for me because of my wife's Crohn's disease. I had to take her places, and then get my own bus. It came right out of my fucking pocket. I almost lost her a couple times. And in the end, I lost my old man and that shaped me into who I am today. I'm a Jedi that is on a new path that is in the dark forest. I finally got my wings and now they're putting me on a path that I've never seen and it's the final phase.

ROOT There were times I wanted to pull my credit card out and book myself a flight home. When we were in Europe, I called up the airline and priced out a one-way flight from Paris to Des Moines. All I had to do was give them my credit card number. And I just couldn't do it. I had to see it through. And then the next day I took one of my custom Fenders and started writing all over it with a Sharpie. I wrote down the airfare from France to Des Moines. And I wrote "The Go-Homeacaster" on it and "Fuck this," "Fuck this band," and "Fuck all these assholes." But I finally realized that all the guys in the band were there for me, I just didn't see it. So over the next couple years, I started to clean my act up slowly but surely, and it took me until Ozzfest 2004 to figure it out.

TAYLOR At Christmas 2004, I had $2,000 in the bank. It's hard for me to talk about. Dude, we got fucked by our old management so bad. We were young, we were really stupid, and we were duped. We thought that people were looking out for us and they weren't. But by the time we got to 'Vol. 3,' we had found our current manager, Cory Brennan. He had worked at Roadrunner and been around since the beginning. The guy is so savvy and so together and, because we all knew him, we believed in him. He helped us get focused again and find that passion. He helped us realize, "Fuck, dude, we're in Slipknot! We're the biggest fucking band on the goddamn planet." And that gave us confidence and maybe helped us rally for one another on 'Vol. 3.' It showed me that everybody in the band wasn't against me. We were there for each other. But really, we were rebuilding bridges for the whole first year of the 'Vol. 3' tour cycle. And it took us a long fucking time to get to that point where we healed a lot of wounds.

MORE SLIPKNOT: Check out our gallery of the most insane Slipknot fan tattoos!

Machine Head have premiered a new song, "Now We Die." Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

The track comes off 'Bloodstone & Diamonds,' which will be released November 10 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

Santa Cruz, California, rock act Requiem (formerly Requiem for the Dead) will release their new album, 'The Unexplainable Truth,' on October 28 via Cleopatra Records. In anticipation, the band—which is led by ex-I Am Ghost frontman Steven Juliano—has teamed up with Revolver to premiere a new song, "Where the Hell Did the Romance Go?" Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

For more on Requiem, follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Jose Mangin recently did a cool interview with Missouri hard-rock act Shaman's Harvest for SiriusXM's Octane channel, and they chatted about their new album, 'Smokin' Hearts & Broken Guns,' cancer, and country music. Read their chat (which was transcribed by Josh "Shitkill" Musto) below, and let us know what you think in the comments.

JOSE MANGIN We just poured ourselves six shots of ice cold Jagermeister and we were about to do the shot, and Nate, vocalist for Shaman's Harvest, drank his and I said, "No, no wait! Let's do it on the radio!" And what did you do?
NATE HUNT I spit that shit out!
MANGIN Yeah! We'll let's do a proper shot, on behalf of Octane, what's up? Welcome to our studios!
HUNT Cheers! It tastes better the second time. It's like 50percent backwash.
MANGIN All right, man, I'm happy to have Shaman's Harvest here inside our New York City studios, celebrating the release of their fifth studio album, 'Smokin' Hearts & Broken Guns.' We've got Joe, Derek, Fisher, Nate, and Josh. "Dragonfly," do you remember that song?
HUNT I do, yeah.
MANGIN Every once in a while you remember that one? When did 'Shine' come out? That was your fourth album.
HUNT 2009.
MANGIN So it's been, like, five years since we've been playing you dudes in pretty heavy rotation—glad to finally put a face to all of your notes and yelps.
HUNT Yeah, you, too. In most places, they don't have rock stations anymore so that pretty much kept us fed on the road right there.
MANGIN Good man, like, burritos? Old cheeseburgers?
HUNT Yeah, that's mostly cheeseburgers right there.
MANGIN What about tacos, man?
HUNT I kill tacos man, fish tacos…
MANGIN Somebody posted something on my Facebook that was like, "If somebody doesn't like tacos, don't trust them."
HUNT Yeah, that's right.

MANGIN I know you guys wrote most of these songs in the studio, different from the other four previous Shaman's Harvest albums. Easier or more difficult?
HUNT It was super easy man. We didn't rehearse the songs to death. We didn't rehearse the soul out of them. We just pretty much had a simple idea and just started tracking each one of them one after the other.
MANGIN Focus on each song at a time and not get it too confusing?
HUNT Yeah.
MANGIN 'Cause sometimes you guys can write parts and be like, "Well, maybe we should save this for another part."
HUNT Yeah, that happens all the time.
MANGIN So it was easier, and lyrical inspiration—who writes most of the lyrics?
HUNT I write the lyrics.
MANGIN And what inspired you?
HUNT Shit, man, each one's different. Some of them—I came down with throat cancer while we were doing that record, so there's some inspiration in there, you know? At least three of four songs.
MANGIN Hold on, that's just a big thing to throw out there, "Yeah you know, just picked up some cancer at the store…"
HUNT Weather gets like this, my cancer just pops up.
MANGIN Are you OK?
HUNT Yeah, I'm good to go. I went through treatments and so I do a treatment in the morning, go to the studio, we track a little bit and I hit up another treatment and go home for the day. Day after day, man. Yeah, it's out. They removed some tumors and they radiated tumors and chemo'd 'em up and all up in my throat.
MANGIN Hey, but I'm glad to hear that you're alright, dude. Quit giving him those radiated cheeseburgers and stuff from the AAA truck stop or whatever.
HUNT It's all we could afford—the dollar menu.

MANGIN So, there's a song on the new album that I really like a lot. It's called "Country as Fuck." I'm Arizona-homegrown. I wore cowboy boots, Mexican cowboy boots, and I feel like I'm a cowboy. I love 'Cowboys From Hell.' I feel like rock music needs stimulation. I think the way that you guys did this song and what other artists are doing collaborating with country things, you know, Mötley Crüe just put out that country tribute album, Halestorm and Eric Church doing a tour together, Rebel Meets Rebel, Hank III, Aaron Lewis from Staind. Why did you guys decide to put a little country on the new album?
HUNT It's kinda like as if Motorhead did country, you know? But we gave it our best shot. It wasn't really like a decision, but it just kinda fit with what we're trying to talk about. I mean, "If you got a bad attitude and a graveyard mind, got shitty ink from doin' time, trailer park living is how you think and your welfare check is how you drink," you might like that song.
MANGIN Can you see them at a bookstore doing readings of your lyrics and stuff, and then explaining, "Well, you know when I said that's country as fuck, I meant…"
HUNT Yeah, can we get that set up? 'Cause I would love to do that. We could set up a tour where Morgan Freeman reads the lyrics.
MANGIN Some movie trailer voice or something. It's got a really cool vibe to it. What do you guys think? Do you feel like there is a future with rock music and country coming together? Because nowadays, country music, some of the popular country songs are like old hard-rock songs back in the '80s. But now they're like, "Oh well, that's country," but no, that's rock!
HUNT Yeah, they're doing rock and they got a twang to it. But I think rock and roll is just getting' ready to take off again as far as sales and popularity go here in the States. We just need honest rock and roll. We need to hear artists coming out with rock and roll that they mean and not just looking to writing that single. You know what I mean?
MANGIN Stuff that comes from the heart.
HUNT And if it does then people will dig it.
MANGIN I'm always a fan of people that wear themselves on their sleeves in their songs, you know? If you're a Latino band, throw it in there! Show us! Cause we're just hearing music all the time and we're just overwhelmed by the music and so many choices, and then when you hear something that, "Oh, that's my hood! That's my music!"
HUNT Connection is important, man.
MATT FISHER It's a pretty serious record so to have "Country as Fuck" on there just the kind of the lighthearted have fun, rock, drink some beer, kick some ass tune worked out pretty good.

Slipknot appear on the cover of the latest issue of Revolver, which is out on newsstands everywhere now and available for purchase online. You can view the cover–shot in L.A. by photographer Sean Murphy–below.

For the cover story, Senior Writer Dan Epstein interviewed Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Shawn "Clown" Crahan, and Jim Root—here are some exclusive, extended outtakes from his conversation with Taylor. Let us know what you think in the comments.

MORE SLIPKNOT: Read an excerpt from the new Revolver cover story.

REVOLVER The first time Slipknot was featured on the cover of Revolver was back in 2001, when Iowa was released. Is it weird to think about how your young fans from those days are in their 30s now?
COREY TAYLOR Yeah, it's weird. We're looking at another generation of fans. And the crazy thing is, with everything that's happened between 'All Hope Is Gone' and now, it's been six years since we've released any new music. So there's almost like a whole new group of people who have come of age without any new Slipknot music—all they've heard is the legend, all they know is the old stuff. It's almost like we're going back to basics and starting from street-level up. And it's cool! One of the reasons we're so excited about the album is because, to us, it feels like starting over in a lot of ways, for better or worse. And I think we're doing it the right way.

Well, making a record without Paul and Joey is kind of like starting over, isn't it? Those guys made a major contribution to Slipknot's music.
Yeah. We knew it was going to be hard, and that's one of the reasons why we took our time coming back to it. Obviously without Paul, and with us splitting ways with Joey, it made it a little harder. But with this band, it's never been an issue of, "We can't do it"—it's always been an issue of "How can we do it? How do we do this?" So when something like that happened, we just kind of filled in the blanks for ourselves. We made sure that everything we did made sense, and that we were doing it for the right reasons. And we went for the music just from the standpoint of, if you want to do it, you've got to find a way to do it. The thing that we realized right away was, "It's not going to be the same—so let's not try and make it the same. Let's just go for what our heart feels." And once we figured that out, man, the music came really quickly; within two months, we had the basic template of what the album would be, and all that was left was to hammer out the details, which is always the best part, anyway. So yeah, it was a really good experience, man.

My initial impression of the album was that it mixes the attack of Iowa with the creepy atmospherics of All Hope Is Gone. Were you intentionally heading in that direction from the get-go?
It was one of those things where we didn't want to make the decision [regarding musical direction] until we heard what the music was going to feel like. And once we heard what it felt like, I thought it had the ferocity of Iowa, but to me, it's got the esoteric, melodic side of Vol. 3, which was a lot more artistic—the bite was still there, but we were starting to spread out artistically a little more. So I think with this, we took that darkness and creativity, and we made something that was just a great amalgam of those two albums. We had a lot of emotion, we had a lot to say, and we knew we didn't want to just go in and make a completely angry album.

Jim and Stone Sour parted ways on less than friendly terms right before work began on this album. Did that situation impact your ability to work together in Slipknot?
It was difficult, at first. It put a strain between he and I for a little bit. It was one of those things where the timing just sucked. But at the same time, we knew that, on both sides, we've gotta do what we've gotta do. But at the same time, we had this amazing project that we were working on [with Slipknot], so we were able to kind of channel that and put it into what we were making, which I think in a lot of ways helped the overall aggression and emotion really get there. Because this album bites. The riffs on this album really dig and really bite, and I think a lot of that [Stone Sour situation] fueled Jim's writing. Not to get too much into that side of things, but obviously it wasn't the way that we wanted the news to get out… Out of respect to Jim, I have to say that we talked about that, and we buried the hatchet there. But in a lot of ways, it is what it is. When you plan for stuff, there's always a chance that your plans will get ruined. I've been saying from Day One that the best way to get God to laugh is to announce your plans out loud. Because it's true, and that didn't even come from a religious standpoint—if you think it's going to go one way, it's totally going to go another. We dealt with it, and we just did the best we could with the situation.

Well, this certainly isn't the first time a Slipknot record has been forged amid personal tensions and issues.
Yeah! But you know what? I can say this with absolute honesty: I had so much more fun making this album than I did making All Hope Is Gone. It was just easier. There was so much tension during All Hope Is Gone, for whatever reason. It was just a fight to make it. This one felt much more like a concerted effort. I think we all realized how important it was. We knew that we wanted to make something special. We knew that we had huge shoes to fill. We all realized that we'd taken a lot of shit for granted; and when you realize that, you start to look at people differently, you start to treat people differently. And I think because of that, we were able to come together as a band and as a team again, and really do something cool—not just for ourselves, but for our fans, because the fans have been gagging for this for a long time. And even though I'm happy that we waited this long, I think it was exactly what we needed to do.

Did that sense of perspective come from Paul's passing?
Well, yeah. That hit us like a ton of bricks, you know? That was probably one of the hardest days that I ever had, if not the hardest day. A lot changed that day for us, you know? Some people went one way, others went another, as far as their lives, their approach towards life, and everything. We kind of looked at each other and went, "None of us is getting younger. We're the only people that know our history, that know what we did together." And in a lot of ways, it seemed like we were kind of taking each other for granted. So one of the positive things that came out of that, if you can find a positive thing, is that it made us realize that we're all we've got, and we needed to get a little closer. And I think we did on this.

Can you comment at all on why the band parted ways with Joey?
Not really. The only thing I can really say is that, in life, you're gonna have instances where the path that you're on leads to a T-section, and you're either gonna go one way or another. Sometimes one person's going one way and you're going the other way, and as much as you can try to go in the same direction, it doesn't always work that way. It was hard, but we did what we felt we had to do. And that's all I can say.

Because of legal issues surrounding the split?
Because of everything—from legal issues to just being respectful towards him, and everyone else.

After Paul passed, was there ever a point where you thought, "That's it, Slipknot's done, we're never going to make another record"?
Um, it was definitely on my mind. There was definitely a point where I was like, "What do we do now? What does it mean?" And there were some dark days at that point, just trying to figure out what the hell was going on. But I don't think there was ever a point where we all felt like, "This is it"—if anything, it made us feel like, "What do we do now?" And I think going out on those Sonisphere shows helped. Those first Sonisphere shows showed us that it's just as important for us to continue as it is for the fans, for whatever reason. Everybody's got a different reason for being here, for being in this band and for continuing it. I think once we did that, we realized, "We still have our legs underneath us, we still love doing it, and we still want to do it." After that, it was like, "Let's give it a little time, and let the time for us to come back and make a record come to us naturally."

How do you think Slipknot fans will receive your new drummer and bassist?
I don't know, to be honest. All we can do is what we do. You start going down that path, and it's just another way to drive yourself crazy—trying to anticipate what a million people are going to say, especially in this day and age where everyone's got an opinion, and you don't really need to know what that opinion is. [Laughs] It's the curse and the blessing of the freakin' Internet. It is what it is. All we can do is take the same approach we've always taken, where we just do what we feel is right—and either the fans are with us, or they're not. This is us moving on, you know? You spend too much time in the shadows, and you forget what warmth feels like. You forget what real sunlight and joy feels like. This is us stepping out of the shadows and getting back on the path.

CHECK OUT THE EVOLUTION OF SLIPKNOT'S MASKS BELOW:

When Slipknot pulled together, forged ahead and released a new album, the triumphant .5: The Gray Chapter, after the tragic death of founding bassist Paul Gray and their surprise split with longtime drummer Joey Jordison, we met up with the band for an in-depth cover story on the harrowing events and the group's creative response. For the cover story, Senior Writer Dan Epstein interviewed Slipknot's singer Corey Taylor, percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan and guitarist Jim Root — but print pages being limited, the full contents of their extensive conversations did not make it into the final piece. Here, fresh off the cutting room floor, are exclusive, extended outtakes from Epstein's interview with Taylor.

THE FIRST TIME SLIPKNOT WAS FEATURED ON THE COVER OF REVOLVER WAS BACK IN 2001, WHEN IOWA WAS RELEASED. IS IT WEIRD TO THINK ABOUT HOW YOUR YOUNG FANS FROM THOSE DAYS ARE IN THEIR 30S NOW?
COREY TAYLOR Yeah, it's weird. We're looking at another generation of fans. And the crazy thing is, with everything that's happened between All Hope Is Gone and now, it's been six years since we've released any new music. So there's almost like a whole new group of people who have come of age without any new Slipknot music — all they've heard is the legend, all they know is the old stuff. It's almost like we're going back to basics and starting from street-level up. And it's cool! One of the reasons we're so excited about the album is because, to us, it feels like starting over in a lot of ways, for better or worse. And I think we're doing it the right way.

WELL, MAKING A RECORD WITHOUT PAUL AND JOEY IS KIND OF LIKE STARTING OVER, ISN'T IT? THOSE GUYS MADE A MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO SLIPKNOT'S MUSIC.
Yeah. We knew it was going to be hard, and that's one of the reasons why we took our time coming back to it. Obviously without Paul, and with us splitting ways with Joey, it made it a little harder. But with this band, it's never been an issue of, "We can't do it" — it's always been an issue of "How can we do it? How do we do this?" So when something like that happened, we just kind of filled in the blanks for ourselves. We made sure that everything we did made sense, and that we were doing it for the right reasons. And we went for the music just from the standpoint of, if you want to do it, you've got to find a way to do it. The thing that we realized right away was, "It's not going to be the same — so let's not try and make it the same. Let's just go for what our heart feels." And once we figured that out, man, the music came really quickly; within two months, we had the basic template of what the album would be, and all that was left was to hammer out the details, which is always the best part, anyway. So yeah, it was a really good experience, man.

MY INITIAL IMPRESSION OF THE ALBUM WAS THAT IT MIXES THE ATTACK OF IOWA WITH THE CREEPY ATMOSPHERICS OF ALL HOPE IS GONE. WERE YOU INTENTIONALLY HEADING IN THAT DIRECTION FROM THE GET-GO?
It was one of those things where we didn't want to make the decision [regarding musical direction] until we heard what the music was going to feel like. And once we heard what it felt like, I thought it had the ferocity of Iowa, but to me, it's got the esoteric, melodic side of Vol. 3, which was a lot more artistic — the bite was still there, but we were starting to spread out artistically a little more. So I think with this, we took that darkness and creativity, and we made something that was just a great amalgam of those two albums. We had a lot of emotion, we had a lot to say, and we knew we didn't want to just go in and make a completely angry album. 

JIM AND STONE SOUR PARTED WAYS ON LESS THAN FRIENDLY TERMS RIGHT BEFORE WORK BEGAN ON THIS ALBUM. DID THAT SITUATION IMPACT YOUR ABILITY TO WORK TOGETHER IN SLIPKNOT?
It was difficult, at first. It put a strain between he and I for a little bit. It was one of those things where the timing just sucked. But at the same time, we knew that, on both sides, we've gotta do what we've gotta do. But at the same time, we had this amazing project that we were working on [with Slipknot], so we were able to kind of channel that and put it into what we were making, which I think in a lot of ways helped the overall aggression and emotion really get there. Because this album bites. The riffs on this album really dig and really bite, and I think a lot of that [Stone Sour situation] fueled Jim's writing. Not to get too much into that side of things, but obviously it wasn't the way that we wanted the news to get out… Out of respect to Jim, I have to say that we talked about that, and we buried the hatchet there. But in a lot of ways, it is what it is. When you plan for stuff, there's always a chance that your plans will get ruined. I've been saying from Day One that the best way to get God to laugh is to announce your plans out loud. Because it's true, and that didn't even come from a religious standpoint — if you think it's going to go one way, it's totally going to go another. We dealt with it, and we just did the best we could with the situation.

WELL, THIS CERTAINLY ISN'T THE FIRST TIME A SLIPKNOT RECORD HAS BEEN FORGED AMID PERSONAL TENSIONS AND ISSUES.
Yeah! But you know what? I can say this with absolute honesty: I had so much more fun making this album than I did making All Hope Is Gone. It was just easier. There was so much tension during All Hope Is Gone, for whatever reason. It was just a fight to make it. This one felt much more like a concerted effort. I think we all realized how important it was. We knew that we wanted to make something special. We knew that we had huge shoes to fill. We all realized that we'd taken a lot of shit for granted; and when you realize that, you start to look at people differently, you start to treat people differently. And I think because of that, we were able to come together as a band and as a team again, and really do something cool — not just for ourselves, but for our fans, because the fans have been gagging for this for a long time. And even though I'm happy that we waited this long, I think it was exactly what we needed to do.

DID THAT SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE COME FROM PAUL'S PASSING?
Well, yeah. That hit us like a ton of bricks, you know? That was probably one of the hardest days that I ever had, if not the hardest day. A lot changed that day for us, you know? Some people went one way, others went another, as far as their lives, their approach towards life, and everything. We kind of looked at each other and went, "None of us is getting younger. We're the only people that know our history, that know what we did together." And in a lot of ways, it seemed like we were kind of taking each other for granted. So one of the positive things that came out of that, if you can find a positive thing, is that it made us realize that we're all we've got, and we needed to get a little closer. And I think we did on this.

CAN YOU COMMENT AT ALL ON WHY THE BAND PARTED WAYS WITH JOEY?
Not really. The only thing I can really say is that, in life, you're gonna have instances where the path that you're on leads to a T-section, and you're either gonna go one way or another. Sometimes one person's going one way and you're going the other way, and as much as you can try to go in the same direction, it doesn't always work that way. It was hard, but we did what we felt we had to do. And that's all I can say.

BECAUSE OF LEGAL ISSUES SURROUNDING THE SPLIT?
Because of everything—from legal issues to just being respectful towards him, and everyone else.

AFTER PAUL PASSED, WAS THERE EVER A POINT WHERE YOU THOUGHT, "THAT'S IT, SLIPKNOT'S DONE, WE'RE NEVER GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER RECORD"?
Um, it was definitely on my mind. There was definitely a point where I was like, "What do we do now? What does it mean?" And there were some dark days at that point, just trying to figure out what the hell was going on. But I don't think there was ever a point where we all felt like, "This is it" — if anything, it made us feel like, "What do we do now?" And I think going out on those Sonisphere shows helped. Those first Sonisphere shows showed us that it's just as important for us to continue as it is for the fans, for whatever reason. Everybody's got a different reason for being here, for being in this band and for continuing it. I think once we did that, we realized, "We still have our legs underneath us, we still love doing it, and we still want to do it." After that, it was like, "Let's give it a little time, and let the time for us to come back and make a record come to us naturally."

HOW DO YOU THINK SLIPKNOT FANS WILL RECEIVE YOUR NEW DRUMMER AND BASSIST?
I don't know, to be honest. All we can do is what we do. You start going down that path, and it's just another way to drive yourself crazy — trying to anticipate what a million people are going to say, especially in this day and age where everyone's got an opinion, and you don't really need to know what that opinion is. [Laughs] It's the curse and the blessing of the freakin' Internet. It is what it is. All we can do is take the same approach we've always taken, where we just do what we feel is right — and either the fans are with us, or they're not. This is us moving on, you know? You spend too much time in the shadows, and you forget what warmth feels like. You forget what real sunlight and joy feels like. This is us stepping out of the shadows and getting back on the path.

SiriusXM's Jose Mangin, along with Shawn The Butcher, recently chatted with Slayer's Tom Araya on Liquid Metal's 666-LIVE call-in show. Read what Araya has to say about chocolate, Chupacabras, and the new Slayer album below (which was transcribed by Josh "Shitkill" Musto), and let us know what you think in the comments!

JOSE MANGIN Wow, so I didn't think this dude was gonna call today. I don't even know what to say—I'm beyond honored to have right now someone that gives me gas!
TOM ARAYA [Laughs]
MANGIN Someone from the great country of Chile! Someone who sings in a band called fuckin' Slayer!
ARAYA Yeah, yeah, yeah… I'm on my way to the airport because I have to fly to Denver tomorrow, because we're doing the Riot Fest in Denver. Right now I'm driving to the airport, leaving the studio where we're working on our new album.
MANGIN Hey, a la verga, Tom! I love seeing the pictures of chocolate, the back of Terry Date's head, seeing all the cool Slayer posts, and getting excited about the new Slayer album. Thank you for taking the time to call us brother, on the way to the airport. So how's it going—what kind of chocolate do you like?
ARAYA What kind of chocolate? Fun-size.
MANGIN I know, I saw the bucket of fun-size Halloween treats. I was like, These guys like the good stuff, man!
ARAYA Everything but Heath Bar.
SHAWN THE BUTCHER Aw, Heath Bar rules man!
ARAYA You like the Heath Bar?
MANGIN Nah, Shawn's from Long Island, Tom—he doesn't know, dude…
SHAWN THE BUTCHER Give me all your Heath Bars. I'll eat them.
MANGIN I'll steal your Butterfingers!
ARAYA [Laughs] Isn't that what you did growing up—Butterfingers?
MANGIN [Laughs] Hey, you know it, Holmes! All right man, so what's your favorite then?
ARAYA My favorite candy, as far as chocolate goes—chocolate period, man. Chocolate period is fuckin' awesome.
MANGIN Hey, do you like the Easter Bunny ones? The thick ones or the hollow ones?
ARAYA It doesn't really matter man. Chocolate is chocolate, you know. I like Snickers, I like M&M's with peanuts, I like the Babe Ruth bars.
MANGIN OK, OK…
SHAWN THE BUTCHER Now the fans know what to bring.
ARAYA I like the Butterfingers, also. I like Kit-Kats, I like Chunky…
SHAWN THE BUTCHER Do you go apeshit on Halloween, Tom?
ARAYA Aw dude, man… Chocolate is my weakness. I love chocolate.
MANGIN Do you dress up like something crazy and go around your neighborhood and go around your neighborhood to all the houses?
ARAYA Yeah, I dress up like Gene Simmons, dude!
MANGIN [Laughs] I knew it, I knew it, man! So now you're gonna have a bunch of Slayer fans bringing you like bite-size chocolates at these Slayer shows, when you guys go on tour with Exodus and Suicidal.
ARAYA They'll be bringing them, but that doesn't mean I'll be getting them. [Laughs]
MANGIN You should just make a rule with security, like, "Hey, if they're bringing chocolates, let them come in!"
ARAYA Yeah, just take the chocolates from them.
MANGIN There you go! And I have a collection at the door, that's a good idea. Hey Tom, so how's it going—how far in the process of a new Slayer album are you guys?
ARAYA We're just getting started, man. We're laying down drum tracks at the moment, but yeah, we're just getting started. I'd say we're two weeks into doing stuff.
MANGIN OkK. So does it feel good?
ARAYA It feels good. Some good shit on here!
MANGIN So the songs, are you guys putting them together now or are they already kind of together?
ARAYA There's stuff that Kerry [King, guitarist] has been working on for the past almost two years, two and a half years. We started this whole process of writing a new album several years ago—three or four years ago, so it's been a long process, it's something that we've been doing for a while. So a lot of these songs have been around for a bit and now we're just trying to figure them out and make them good.
MANGIN How's Terry [Date, producer]?
ARAYA He's awesome, dude. He's really, really good. We actually finished up a song that we're doing for somebody and we put that together in five days, and we went in and recorded it, we did all our parts, and then Terry mixed it and we presented it and it fuckin' sounds really heavy, man. Sounds awesome, sounds real fuckin' heavy.

MANGIN Ah, that's awesome! So the big Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies, Slayer tour starts at the Fox Theater in Oakland on November 12—are you excited about that tour, Tom?
ARAYA Yeah, dude, somebody brought up the fact that we did a show with Exodus and Suicidal 30 years ago. It was in San Francisco, we did it in a park, and they called it "Day at the Dirt."
MANGIN Day at the Dirt?
ARAYA Yeah, you know, like a "Day at the Green?" But this one was known as Day at the Dirt, because it was something that somebody put together and everybody decided to play and it was actually a lot of fun. But let's put it this way—at the end of the night there were bands still playing and everybody pulled their cars around and turned the headlights on so they could have light. [Laughs]
MANGIN Nice, that's old school, dude!
ARAYA Yeah, very old school, it was awesome. There are pictures of it in that book, 'Murder in the Front Row.' You know that book?
MANGIN Yes sir! Ian Christe, our DJ, he's the the publisher of Bazillion Points and he put that book out last year.
ARAYA Yeah, there's pictures of that day in the book. Someone made the connection and said, "Hey, you guys did this show 30 years ago." To think that you got Suicidal, and then you got Exodus, and you got us and you're thinking fuck… 30 years ago is a lifetime.
MANGIN Damn, that's awesome man! I saw you guys at Rock on the Range, you guys killed it on the main stage. I remember being on the balcony with my wife, Melissa, and just making you laugh, and you were making me laugh and that was a cool moment there. And of course at the Golden Gods Awards when you guys came out in the beginning and you did perform three songs there. That was one hell of a way to kick off the freakin' Golden Gods awards. So how's your family, Tomás, how's everybody?
ARAYA They're doing good man, how's your family? How's your kids?
MANGIN They're doing good man, six and third grade. I know your kids are getting big dude.
ARAYA Yeah, my kids are a little older than yours.
MANGIN Yeah, your daughter is wearing lipstick and stuff and I'm like "a la verga!" Oh no, how do you feel?
ARAYA You're gonna take that advice, right? Shotgun by the door.
MANGIN Dude, I'm getting my gun license in New Jersey, dude. I'm in the process of. I already did my fingerprints yesterday, so now I have to wait to get approval from the state of New Jersey, so cross your fingers, maybe you could put in a good word for me.
ARAYA Yeah, and don't be ashamed to let those guys know that you've been in jail once, man!
SHAWN THE BUTCHER It was for possession. [Laughs]
MANGIN Hey, I was detained, I wasn't in jail! I was just detained for a while.
ARAYA Yeah, let 'em know, you'll go back if you have to. [Laughs]
MANGIN That's perfect, dude! Yeah man, I mean, I get nervous for you. I don't even want to think about lipstick and selfies and all this other stuff, man.
ARAYA Yeah, Chris Rock said it great: "Your true job in life is to keep your girl away from the pole."
SHAWN THE BUTCHER Keep that girl away from that pole!
MANGIN [Laughs] Hey, and Tom, how's your health, brother? How you doing health-wise?
ARAYA I'm doing good. I mean, I'm not dying. [Laughs]
MANGIN OK, good! You're still involved with martial arts? I know it's a secret, I don't want to—like, you're in some secret society or something.
ARAYA Yeah, I keep up with that on days that I can. It's just a lot of this travel just makes you feel like you don't want to do anything because you're too tired, you just want to rest. But yeah, I dedicate my time to it when I can. It's always gonna be a part of it—it's not something I'm gonna ever let go.
MANGIN Nice, and by the way I saw some pictures of some bathroom renovations—nice job there, Tomás!
ARAYA Yeah, that's kinda why I'm out here busting my ass, dude! Gotta pay the bills!
MANGIN Sandra's doing too much to the house—you gotta record a new Slayer album!
ARAYA Yeah dude, I gotta get my ass in gear—let's put it that way.
MANGIN Hey dude, well, just send me out there—I can feed the horses and milk the cows and shit, do some bathroom renovations.
ARAYA You can milk our cows—they're not milking cows.
MANGIN I can artificially inseminate them if you need man!
ARAYA [Laughs] Yeah, we got the "love glove"—you can try one of those.
MANGIN Hey, and last but not least, how are the animals—all the farm animals that you guys have?
ARAYA They're alive and well. Today one of our dogs actually got run over by a car and dragged, but he's alive and doing well, but he's got a broken leg.
MANGIN Wow, I wasn't expecting that answer, dude. I was like shit! I didn't mean to bring that up, I'm sorry dude!
ARAYA Yeah, I mean, they're all happy, aside from the one that got hit by a car. He's also healthy, too, so he'll heal quick.
MANGIN Well, at least the chupacabras haven't eaten them all, you know.
ARAYA No, no. No chupacabras, man. I'm not living in that part of Texas!
MANGIN Hey dude, Tom, much love to the family, thank you so much for calling up. Have fun this weekend playing with Slayer, playing Riot Fest and of course we'll see you on the Exodus/Suicidal tour, which starts off in the middle of November, and good luck recording the new fuckin' Slayer album!
ARAYA Dude, Mr. Jose! Good to hear ya, we'll be seeing each other soon, man.
MANGIN Alright, cool man, Tom Araya gives me gas!
ARAYA [Laughs] Later!

Melodic death metal pioneers At the Gates have premiered their first new material in 19 years—the title track from their new album 'At War with Reality.' Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

Bassist Jonas Björler said, "We have finally reached the moment for the unveiling of a first full brand new At the Gates song! We have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this record for the past year, and we are very happy to now present you the title track of 'At War With Reality.' Let the journey begin."

The album will be out October 27 via Century Media Records.

Orlando electronic metal outfit Exotype will release their new self-titled album on October 7 via Rise Records. In anticipation, the band has teamed up with Revolver to premiere a new song, "For Those Afraid to Speak," which features guest DJ Rekoil. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

To get 'Exotype,' visit Rise Records' webstore. The band is currently on tour with The Amity Affliction, Obey the Brave, For the Fallen Dreams, and Favorite Weapon. For more on Exotype, follow them on Facebook.

Having previously fronted the now-defunct black-metal band Eyes of Noctum, Wes Cage—the son of actor Nicolas Cage—is embarking as a solo artist and spearheading a style of music that he's dubbed "Ghost Metal." Today, he's teamed with Revolver to premiere his first solo single, "Tell Me Why (Matriarch of Misery)." Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

"I've always had an intense passion for music, so much so that I started my first band while still in middle school," Cage says. "As soon as Eyes Of Noctum disbanded, though, I was left alone with a vast array of melodies, rhythms, and concepts. In this time of great seclusion, my inner dialogue and muse grew louder and more impatient, this continued until a solo project was my only resort. My heart wanted this and I am proudly here to present music that is truer to my essence, direct from my core. 'Ghost Metal' has been my life's work. I have been creating this genre for years and the majority of this album's track list properly delivers the sound of a traditional 'Ghost Metal' track while others remain diverse so that we can all ease into this new genre in the family tree of metal. 'Tell Me Why' is open to interpretation, but to me, it's simply about betrayal, abuse, and being used by someone that likes to drain people's life forces. What makes my writing style unique, is that I have to insure that at least one part of the song gives me the chills. If I am haunted by my own riff, then I've reached my standard for 'Ghost Metal.' My music, like myself, is honest and gritty. With all that said, the first single off my debut solo album, 'Prehistoric Technology,' 'Tell Me Why (Matriarch of Misery),' will arrive in digital stores worldwide on September 22, 2014, with the album following suit with a pre-release in January 2015."

For more on Wes Cage, follow him on Facebook.com and Twitter.com.

Music written by Wes Cage. Lyrics written by Danielle Cage. Produced by Ashburn Miller. Mixed by Phil Anderson. Mastered by Maor Appelbaum Mastering – CA USA.