Corey Taylor gave an update on new Slipknot music in a new interview with Musik Universe, saying the follow-up to 2014's .5: The Gray Chapter will "absolutely" arrive next year. What's more, he's currently writing lyrics for three new Slipknot songs, describing the material as "dark" and "the most autobiographical I've been in years."
Asked if he's heard any of the instrumentals his bandmates have been cooking up as of late, Corey replied, "Yeah, I have. It's awesome – that's all I'm gonna say about it." He went on to note that he's received six "really, really good" demos so far.
"By demo," he clarified, "I mean really just the fact that it's maybe a little longer than it will end up, because what you wanna do is take that idea and extrapolate it to the point where you've exhausted every kind of idea — and then you kind of take it, you shorten it, you break it down, you formulate it, and you get it to a little more solid, a little more fluid [place]."
Taylor also divulged details regarding his writing process for the new LP. "It's probably the most autobiographical I've been in years, just for the fact that I've been through a lot the last few years, and I've been sitting on a lot," he noted. "So I'm writing from the standpoint of where I am now instead of where I was, which is so easy to tap into sometimes, and it's so easy to just kind of go there almost on impulse; but now, I'm writing it from the standpoint of a man who's been through a lot — not just a young man, but an older man — and trying to figure things out."
Elsewhere in the interview, Taylor discussed Slipknot founder Shawn "Clown" Crahan's remarks on Jamey Jasta's podcast implying the band's next album "could be it for [him]." "We've always said — and this is not in a negative way — we've always said that when we get to the point where we physically can't do Slipknot the way we want to do it, we'll stop," the singer noted, "and for some of us, the years of being in Slipknot have taken [their] toll." He added that, should Crahan decide to leave, it may very well be curtains for Slipknot.
"He's always been the vision for this band, for Slipknot, and without that, it crumbles," he said of Crahan. "So, yeah, if he left, that would be it for me, as well — and I say that, honestly, in a very positive way, because none of us would want to continue doing it from a half-assed point of view. Nobody wants to go 50 percent on a Slipknot album," he concluded.
Later, when asked if he had plans to venture out into new musical territory, Taylor revealed that he'd like to make a jazz album. "I want to put together a quintet or a sextet and record it old school, all of us in a room, playing together, do it very organic, very live — the way those great albums were recorded, you know?" he mused, "Make it a hint of jazz, a hint of big band — just really make it about the song, and about the individuals playing together."
