Slipknot guitarist Jim Root hopes to recapture some of the early fire that propelled the masked Iowan band to superstardom when they finally get down to crafting their eventual 8th studio album. Appearing recently on the ‘Turning Wrenches Podcast‘, Root, who previously spoke of his lack of inspiration for new music late last year, appears to have since come around, with a total of six arrangement ideas now up his sleeve.
Root was quoted as saying of what he’s been cooking up on the aforementioned podcast [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“I’ve got like six finished arrangements that so far nobody else has heard yet. They’re about ready to go to Clown [M. Shawn Crahan] and Corey [Taylor] and then filter out into the rest of the band. I would really like to release something before we start working on a record.
Because I think we need to be able to take our time to write and do pre-production and that’s gonna take awhile, so I would like to get something out sooner to kinda satisfy… I don’t know if it would show a direction or not, it depends on what arrangement it is.
But of these six [song ideas] I have now, I’m willing to throw those out to the rest of the guys and see if any of them grab their attention. We could very easily — after we get back from Europe — get out to Clown‘s studio and then start working on one, and put one out. I would like to do 1, 2 maybe even 3 [singles] in the meantime. As long as that affords me the time to keep writing and still have 25 separate from those 3 that we could work on before.
You always want to have way more material than what you’re gonna need, because you might be working on something that you think is absolutely amazing, but then once you actually start recording it, it kinda loses the vibe. And then there’s always that one weird song that you don’t think is great, and then all of a sudden that turns into the song that’s like, ‘Woah, where did this come from? This thing’s a banger.’
“Devil In I” is one of those songs. I wrote that song and I thought it was really repetitive and I hated it and it was just gonna become like a filler idea. And then all of a sudden that’s one that we always throw in live sets, and the record label wanted to make it a single, and I’m just like, ‘Really? It’s almost like the same two riffs over again.’
It literally, as long as it took me to play that song, is as long as it took me to write the arrangement for it, so… things surprise you. So it would be cool to sort of throw something out there as sort of a single or an EP.”
This news may be somewhat disappointing to fans who expected the new track “Long May You Die“ to seemingly be waiting in the wings, as the band previously teased it just over a year ago. As for his hopes for when Slipknot actually do set out to lay down their next opus, he offered [transcribed by Rock Feed]:
“I want to make a raw album that kind of like, you know, I don’t ever want to repeat myself, we don’t as a band ever want to repeat ourselves… But I would like to revisit the raw energy of how those first two records were recorded and even into the ‘Volume 3‘ record… There’s just something really stripped down and punk rock about it and I think we’ve been missing that on our past few records and I think it’s time to get back to that in some ways.”
While the Slipknot of the late 90s and early 00s was an entirely different beast, the raw aesthetic found on their initial salvos into the mainstream, 1999’s self-titled and 2001’s “Iowa“, certainly owe a big debt to the uniquely aggressive production style of producer Ross Robinson, who helped champion the band to the masses. Though there’s been disproven rumors about the band intending to reunite with Robinson over the years, the two parties appear to remain friends, having spent some time together last fall.
In this latest podcast appearance, Root was also asked if plans are still in place to reissue the band’s self-titled 1999 album in honor of its 25th anniversary. He mentioned that he has heard some new in-progress remasters of that record that are being completed for an upcoming anniversary release. However, he did caution that he’s not entirely sure when fans can expect it, stating, “I don’t have any news as to when it’s happening, but it is happening.”
Slipknot toured on the 25th anniversary their aforementioned album extensively last year, reinventing their early masks and attire for their time onstage celebrating that landmark album. Their currently announced live commitments for 2025 run as follows:
06/04 Solvesborg, SWE – Sweden Rock
06/06 Nuremberg, GER – Rock im Park
06/07 Nurnburg, GER – Rock am Ring
06/08 Nancy, FRA – Heavy Weekend
06/10 Hannover, GER – Expo Plaza
06/12 Hradec Kralove, CZE – Rock For People
06/13 Nickelsdorf, AUT – Nova Rock
06/14 Interlaken, SWI – Greenfield
06/17 Ferrara, ITA – Ferrara Summer Festival
06/20 Dessel, BEL – Graspop Metal Meeting
06/21 Copenhagen, DEN – Copenhell
06/23 Berlin, GER – Waldbuhne
06/25 Lyon, FRA – LDLC Arena
06/26 Barcelona, SPA – Rock Fest Barcelona
06/28 Viveiro, SPA – Resurrection Fest
06/29 Lisbon, POR – Evil Live Festival
07/19 Mansfield, OH – Inkcarceration Festival
