Today (June 9th), Slipknot surprise-released a new six-track project, the Adderall EP, presumably the cap of a wild week in 'Knot land — though you never know for sure when it comes to the Iowan metal maniacs.
The EP features three versions of "Adderall," the polarizing, experimental opening track on Slipknot's 2022 album, The End, So Far. There's a version with "no intro" that cuts about a minute off the rendition that opens The End, So Far, and then a demo version of the song as well as an instrumental take.
Elsewhere, the project features three more instrumentals: the minute-long "Death March," a 25-second cut called "Red or Redder" and a longer outro titled "Hard to Be Here." Listen to the full EP below, and watch the trippy, Clown-directed music video for "Memories (Adderall - Rough Demo)" above.
"Deconstructing to continuously pave the way for evolution," Clown commented. "At this point in the program, nothing is safe."
Slipknot's wild week kicked off Tuesday when drummer Jay Weinberg unveiled a toothy upgrade to his mask. Then Wednesday morning, co-founding percussionist and conceptualist Shawn "Clown" Crahan announced that he was going on an indefinite hiatus from the band's live lineup due to his wife's health issues. Later that day, Slipknot announced that longtime sampler and keyboardist Craig "133" Jones was out of the band.
That sudden news became even more shocking when the 'Knot deleted the posts in less than an hour, and then, right around the time they were hitting the stage at the Nova Rock festival in Nickelsdorf, Austria, Slipknot posted an uncaptioned photo of a masked mystery person who's presumably the new band member replacing Jones.
Early the next morning (June 8th), Slipknot posted eerie teasers leading fans to the website youcantkillme.com where the disturbing music video for a new song called "Death March" was available for viewing. At first, the 'Knot community was completely unsure what the creepy instrumental was leading to, but rumors of the Adderall EP shortly started spreading.
It's worth noting that the EP doesn't contain the 'Knot's February 2023 single "Bone Church," which felt like an unused B-side to The End, So Far, but was, according to Clown, actually conceived way back in 2014 during the sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter.
The Adderall EP is Slipknot's first non-single release of 2023, but it might not be their last. As Clown teased during an interview at the top of the year, the band's long-lost "Radiohead vibe" album, Look Outside Your Window — recorded during the All Hope Is Gone sessions back in the 2000s — could finally see the light of day sometime this year.
"It's an amazing body of work," Clown said of the much-mythologized 11-song project during a recent interview. "You will never hear another Corey Taylor like this. The music and the words … It's one of the best things I've ever done in my life."
Stay tuned.
