The title of Slipknot's new album, THE END, SO FAR, definitely has a conclusive connotation to it. Many fans have guessed that this is the nu-metal band's way of hinting that they'll be breaking up after their upcoming seventh opus, which is something that Corey Taylor has shot down on numerous occasions.
In a new interview with SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk show, the frontman once again reiterated that the band aren't going anywhere, and then he gave a lengthy breakdown of what the title really means — and why they chose it.
"People have been talking about the end of Slipknot since 2003, so it doesn't really matter," Taylor said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. "If I had a nickel for every time I've had to straighten fans out, I'd have a shit-ton of nickels, let's put it that way.
"Nothing sells albums like drama, let's put it that way, and even drama that doesn't even come from us; it just comes from the fans," he continued. "But at the same time, I kind of started saying onstage… explaining what the title is. It's the fact that it's… It's the end so far, which just means it's the end of one era and the start of the next.
"If you look at all of our favorite bands — Maiden, Metallica, Sabbath; you can even talk about Judas Priest. All these bands that we grew up on, loving; and our friends in Anthrax as well — every one of those bands has had different eras in their career; it's never been a straight line. There's no through line except for the members. And every era comes to a natural end and then it's the next one. So that's what the title reflects."
Trunk follows up that statement by asking Taylor if he believes the bands he just listed have individual eras that are marked by major lineup shifts.
"I do, but at the same time, you can still have the end of one era and the beginning of another with the same band members," Taylor replied. "So, to me, it can be a reflection of the fact that you have different members or you're just moving in a different direction. For me, it's more about just letting the fans know that we will be back and to remind them that you just never know what you're gonna get with us."
"I mean, every album has always felt different; it's always sounded different. And to me, I feel like this era is more about us dealing with the grief that we've had to deal with and now kind of getting to the point where we can now move on comfortably into the future, and it's not about that. It's a part of our history now; it's not our narrative. And now we can kind of move on and kind of see what the future holds for Slipknot, musically where we can go now.
"Because of the way we've done things, we've set it up so we can go in any direction we want, and as long as it comes from the heart, it doesn't matter. So that's kind of the era, I think, that's being set up now. The next era will definitely be more of like a 'gloves off, let's just see what happens and go for it.'"
So that's that on that. THE END, SO FAR is out September 30th via Roadrunner Records and you can pre-order it on CD and/or vinyl from our shop.
