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In case both my headline and the above video are somehow confusing to you: yes, during this past Saturday night’s stop on his current solo tour, Corey Taylor did indeed reveal that Slipknot will be touring the U.S. this summer, and he did say that “there will be another Slipknot album,” although “we’ve still got a couple of years before” said album gets made.
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For example, are you a young guitar player looking to learn how to sweep pick? Fret not, for GKC52 has a video instructing viewers about this very subject!
Corey Taylor and Joey Jordison have basically been contradicting one another in the press for months, with Jordison telling anyone who will listen that Slipknot will live on without Paul Gray, and Taylor telling anyone who asks that he’s not so sure. Now Metal Insider tells us that, in a recent video interview (above), Jordison has gone so far as to say that not only will Slipknot continue with Gray, but if necessary, it will continue without Taylor, too:
“You know what?! That’s for him to answer. As far as I’m concerned, Slipknot’s my baby and I have a bunch of songs written. And I’m in rehearsal right now with all the guys and it’s completely on fire. Donnie [Steele, Gray's replacement]’s doing a great job. And as far as Slipknot’s concerned, it’ll always exist — with or without [Taylor]. So that’s it.”
I’m not gonna do a regular worst week this week, because I wanna ramble for a minute. I’m sure no one will be too disappointed.
I really can’t believe it’s been a year since Peter Steele died… I also can’t believe he’s really dead. If you haven’t already read Anso’s two-part rememberance of the man, featuring interviews with bandmates, family members, and friends, you absolutely must do so — it’s amazing. Here’s part one, and here’s part two.
But I’d like to take a moment and pay tribute to the guy in a way that I know might seem weird — by discussing the song “Enemy of the State” from the Roadrunner United album. Steele didn’t write the music — Joey Jordison and engineer/mixer/producer Matt Sepanic did — but the keyboards and samples are by his Type O Negative bandmate, Josh Silver, and Steele did write the vocal melody and lyrics, and those contributions from Steele make the song really special.
See, the entire track is sung in a made-up language. And it sounds pretty authentic — I didn’t know it was made up until I read an interview with Jordison. I honestly thought, “Oh, Peter Steele is fluent in some cool Eastern European language. Awesome.”
Singing words that don’t actually mean anything might seem crazy, but I get the distinct impression that they meant something to him. I mean, check out his vocal delivery, the way that he laughs after certain moments — he was most certainly telling a story. He conveyed that narrative purely through sound and the tone of his fantastic voice — maybe he was making a commentary on how lyrics don’t matter, maybe he was just trying an experiment, or maybe he was just fucking around. I just find the fact that he even thought to approach the song this way so brilliantly weird. Even if it’s not necessarily the definitive Peter Steele song, the way he made it is definitively Peter Steele.
Vince and I will be away most of next week, but we leave you in the competent hands of Anso DF and Corey Mitchell. Try to take it easy on those dudes and not miss us too much.
-AR
Alright, let’s get our Headbanger’s Ball on.
First up today we have “Get Back in Line,” Motörhead’s first video in support of their new album, The Wörld is Yours. That album title, in case you don’t know, is a Scarface reference, and the title of this year’s offering from Upon a Burning Body — although my gut tells me Motörhead’s album will probably make a much stronger impression on the world at large. I dunno, call it a hunch.
But I digress.
The video is pretty cheap and definitely trite, but it’s Motörhead, so I don’t think anyone will care. I don’t know why this band even feels the need to make videos anymore — I would imagine that, at this point, Motörhead’s following will buy their new album pretty much no matter what, and that new generations of Motörhead fans will be created the same way they have been for years: via cool older brothers, cousins, uncles, and other terrible role models who pass the music down to the next generation. But even if I’m wrong and this band still needs new videos to sell their wares, well, I don’t really care so much that the video is a little lame, ’cause the song made me grab a MetalSucks Mansion Monkey by the tail and swing him around over my head for three-and-a-half straight minutes.
So all this “We’re making a new album!”/”No we’re not!” back-and-forth between the members of Slipknot — specifically, drummer Joey Jordison (pro-new album) and vocalist Corey Taylor (anti-new album) — was already pretty baffling before the band started announcing tour dates for next summer, especially given that these announcements came roughly 24 hours after Taylor’s latest assertion that there’s no new ‘Knot on the horizon. ‘Cause if the band is booking gigs, then there MUST be at least SOME communication either between the band members or directly or at least via their handlers, which would suggest that someone could either tell Jordison to shut up, or tell Taylor to shut up, or tell them both to shut up.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Over the weekend, Taylor once again took to Twitter to try and clear things up for his fans, and, in doing so, once again only made things muddier:
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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.
This week, Anso DF suggested the Question of the Week; unfortunately, he did so before Slipknot announced that they’re headlining the Sonisphere Festival this year, so it doesn’t seem quite as relevant anymore. Still, it was a fun question to answer, so:
TO WHAT EXTENT WOULD A SLIPKNOT BREAK-UP BE BAD FOR METAL?
The MS staff’s answers after the jump.
Slipknot is annoying as all fuck, and worse, the Iowan nonet makes me look like a shitty prognosticator. Or at least a victory-drunk prognosticator, ‘cuz after correctly predicting in 1999 that Slipknot’s debut would net Roadrunner a first platinum sales award, I then guessed that the band would bring extreme metal to mainstream media. Which hasn’t happened, unless you grant a technical allowance for a metal band whose intrusions into radio and TV are, by extreme standards, too pussy even for my little cousins. I blame Corey Taylor, who has vaulted sanity and perspective straight into Anselmoian delusion.
So it was just yesterday that I was commenting on how Joey Jordison keeps going around saying there’s gonna be a new Slipknot album despite the death of Paul Gray, and how Corey Taylor keeps basically saying he’s not sure yet, and how maybe these two should call one another and, y’know, discuss it before making any more comments in public — especially now that Jordison is promising that plans for a new Slipknot offering are “already in motion,” and that all the other members of the band are “really involved in the process.” In fact, I even predicted that Taylor would say the exact opposite very, very soon:
“That sounds pretty definitive, and saying that ‘everyone’s really involved’ in the creation of a new record more than implies that Taylor is now fully onboard. But I wouldn’t be at all shocked if next week Taylor says he knows nothing about continuing on with Slipknot. I hope that doesn’t happen, ’cause it blows to keep yo-yoing the fans’ excitement like this… I’m just saying that, as always, past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior.”
Well, hey, guess what? I must be psychic or something, ’cause mere hours after my post went up, Taylor tweeted the following messages:
Back in July, our Number One Homie, Rob Pasbani, wrote a typically droll piece for Metal Injection. Entitled “Slipknot Vocalist Says It’s Too Early To Talk About Band’s Future; Drummer Talks About Band’s Future,” it pointed out that while ‘Knot vocalist Corey Taylor was running around saying he was unsure about the group’s future in the wake of bassist Paul Gray’s untimely passing, drummer Joey Jordison was running around assuring everyone that the band would live on.
And even though you would think that in the intervening time, someone would notice the contradiction in statements and politely tell Taylor and Jordison to either a) figure out if the band is really going to continue or not so they don’t keep contradicting one another in public, or b) start telling everyone who asks about it “no comment” so that they don’t look foolish, this continued throughout August, when Jordison told a reporter that “There will be another Slipknot record, of course,”and into September, when Taylor told a different reporter, “I’m very conflicted about whether or not I want to do anything with Slipknot, because to me, Paul was such an integral part of the band… it just doesn’t make sense [to continue without him].”
Alright, let’s Pauline Kael these bitches.
First up today is “Nowhere,” by Muderdolls. As in, “We ain’t goin’ nowhere ’cause we had to cancel our tour .”
ANYWAY, when this video started, I was like, “Oh, a chick in bed. I can get behind this concept.” But then I realized it wasn’t a chick, it was a Murderdoll. And so then Joey and Wednesday 13 are on the phone and Wednesday 13 is bummed for some reason and Joey is all, “You wanna go somewhere?” and Wednesday 13 is all “Yeah.” And then Joey gets in his cool car in slow motion, and then Axl gets bored and turns the video off.
When did this band start taking themselves so seriously? Remember when all their songs had names like “197666″ and “Love at First Fright” and lyrics like “I don’t wanna meet your mom and dad/Unless you let me fuck your mom and dress your dad in drag?” All this angst is so sleeeeeeeeepy.
I’d wager that Joey Jordison and his Murderdolls will never, ever perform the above song live again.
Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe 2 just came out in February, but daddy needs a new cowboy hat, so Roadrunner is doing a super-duper-special edition re-release of the album on September 28. It’s not even an eight month turnaround; I don’t know if that’s a record or it just feels even faster than usual.
As is pretty much standard with these re-releases, there will be new songs included; not standard, though, is that those new songs will be interspersed throughout the old ones — as opposed to just putting them all after whatever the last song used to be, or on their own disc, or whatever — which makes HB2 George Lucas Style almost a new album, creatively if not actually. By which I mean, I’ve met bands that are ridiculously perfectionistic when it comes to figuring out their sequencing — sequencing means something, and a lot of thought goes into the flow of the record. Adding new material will, presumably, alter that flow in some regard.
Either that, or I just spent more time thinking about the sequencing of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 than Rob Zombie did.
I really loved The Devil’s Rejects, but at this point, I’m willing to accept that it was a fluke, and that Rob Zombie is not a very talented film director. House of 1,000 Corpses was fun, but I haven’t felt the need to re-watch it since I saw it in theaters, and while I thought that Zombie’s Halloween was the worst thing ever, that’s only because I had not yet seen his Halloween II, which really might be the worst thing ever. And some people said that his straight-to-DVD animated flick, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, was pretty good, but I turned it off after about fifteen minutes. I think if I was thirteen I would have thought it was the tits, but I’m not so I didn’t.
It’s gotten to the point where the best thing about any Zombie flick is the inevitable shot of some part of Sheri Moon Zombie’s naked anatomy. Because Rob Zombie has a hot wife, and he wants you to know that he has a hot wife. Also, because a quick look at Sheri’s resumé tells me that she’s only ever worked on two projects that her husband wasn’t directly involved in: a Tobe Hooper movie I’ve never even heard of (Holy shit, did Tobe Hooper wipe out or what?), and appearing as a Nurse on an episode of Californication (a not very good show which is apparently written by metal fans who probably knew who Sheri was).
So now Zombie has released a new video for the song “Mars Needs Women,” a song which just SCREAMS for a naked chick painted red, and where the fuck is Sheri? NOWHERE TO BE SEEN! Sheesh. I’m glad Rob’s band is basically a supergroup now, but you think I wanna look at Joey Jordison’s mask instead of your wife’s hot bod? Puh-leeze. Get it together, Rob!!!
-AR
[via Noisecreep]
I’ve said before that Muderdolls were a guilty pleasure of mine. My entire interest in the band lay in the fact that they were basically a modern hair metal band who actually wrote catchy tunes that were mostly ridiculous instead of entirely ridiculous.
But now the band – which is really just Joey Jordison and Wednesday 13 – has released a new song, “My Dark Place Alone,” and it sounds nothing like old Murderdolls. Which might be good news, if you hated old Murderdolls and love generic Godsmackian rawk, but I do not fit into that particular demographic. I mean, I appreciate the over-use of the cowbell, but that’s about all I appreciate about this crap.
Mick Mars is supposed to be on this album in some form another; hopefully the tracks he plays on will be more vintage Motley Crue-ish.
-AR
[via Bloody Disgusting]
There are really two questions on the mind of every Slipknot fan right now: “How did Paul Gray die?” and “Will Slipknot go on without him?” And, unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that either question is getting answered just yet.
Slipknot, Gray’s widow, Brenna, and his brother, Tony, held a press conference yesterday, but the question of Slipknot’s future wasn’t addressed – which makes sense. These guys are clearly grieving, and to even think about whether or not to try and replace their friend is probably just too much right now. So the press conference basically amounted to Brenna, Tony, and various members of the band eulogizing Gray. It’s sad and it’s touching and there isn’t really much else to say about it.
Meanwhile, Metal Insider reports the immediate results of Gray’s autopsy were inconclusive – although there are no signs of foul play, and it could take four to six weeks for the toxicology reports to be delivered. Consequently, the cause of death is “still under investigation” by the Urbandale, IA police force.
-AR
When you tune into the premiere broadcast of The Second Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards tomorrow night on VH1 classic, you’ll see the final public appearance of our beloved Ronnie James Dio. You’ll also see Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains, winner of roughly half of the meaningful awards, enjoying the metal community’s validation of their potentially dicey comeback effort, the magnificent Black Gives Way To Blue. You’ll see metal codgers like Rob Halford, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, and Lemmy bathe in much-deserved adulation. You’ll also see potentially ho-hum performances pumped up by mega-drummers: Rob Zombie with Joey Jordison (in his debut performance), Fear Factory with Gene Hoglan, Brian Posehn with John Tempesta (and Brett Anderson girl call me srsly) and Slash with Dave Grohl.
But at a mere 60 minutes, the broadcast can’t capture all of the April 8 event’s super moments and silly gaffes. Here’s a few things you won’t see:
So Joey Jordison has begun his stint as Rob Zombie’s temporary drummer at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards this past Thursday evening, and, of course, someone captured footage on the momentous occasion on their cellphone. I don’t have much to say about it, but I do wonder why Joey Jordison is bothering to wear his mask for these gigs; for one thing, it’s not like we haven’t all seen him without his mask at this point, and for another thing, even though Rob Zombie is a “shock rocker” (albeit not a very shocking one), it’s not like Joey doesn’t look plenty weird even without his mask. I mean, just look at that dude. Ladies, would you bring him home to meet mom? Probably not, right?
Here’s the video footage in question:
-AR
I’m confused. First, Murderdolls’ Joey Jordison and Wednesday 13 told Artist Direct that their new album, Women and Children Last, isn’t gonna be quite the hair-metal fest that their last album was…
Does Women and Children Last preserve that classic Sunset Strip attitude?
Wednesday 13: Kind of…the title more or less exists to piss people off. Even though I’m a hair metal fan, I’ve become a huge Slayer fan over the years. With the way the new Murderdolls music sounds, it’s everything from that Sunset Strip stuff to Slayer. It goes everywhere this time—whereas the first record was more punk rock.
Joey Jordison: I’m really excited about it. I think it’s actually going to reel in a lot of the Slipknot fans because of the heaviness. We’re not going to lose any fans; this album is only going to gain fans for us. We weren’t like, “Okay, we’re going to crank out some campy songs like we did before.”
…and then they announced that Mick Mars is doing a guest spot on the album, and released the following photo just to prove that Mick can still sit down is really in the studio with them:
Now, I love old Motley Crue and I love Slayer, but you’d never hear Mars play on Slayer album. So either Jordison and 13 (is that how I refer to him?) are full of cow poo, or this is going to be a really, really diverse sounding record. I sincerely hope it’s the latter.
And that’s the second time today I’ve mentioned Mick Mars and Slayer in one breath. Weird.
-AR
Slipknot always take extended breaks in-between albums; that downtime is usually used for Corey Taylor to go do something with Stone Sour, Joey Jordison and Shawn “Clown” Crahan to go play with/produce whomever the hell they’re playing with/producing at the moment, and the rest of the band to pretty much fall off the face of the planet. Not to be rude or anything, I mean, maybe the other six dudes in the band all have very their own musical side-projects, but I’ve never heard about any of them, which isn’t a great sign.
But Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn (a.k.a. “The one whose mask has a Pinocchio schnozz“) is getting in on the action now: Lambgoat reports that he is now the new bassist for Will Haven. So, hey, lookit that! He can do more than hit a garbage can with a baseball bat and jerk-off his nose. Killer.
