At least one member of Slipknot has completed recording their parts for the masked metal band’s upcoming eighth studio album. A newly shared interview with drummer Eloy Casagrande, found him confirming he wrapped up this contributions to the album roughly 10 days ago from when the interview was conducted. It’s of course no secret that the group have been in the studio in recent months with producer Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Mushroomhead). Their guitarist James Root has been open about the process thus far on social media.
Casagrande‘s new comments came via The Downbeat Podcast, which is hosted by ex-Stray From The Path drummer Craig Reynolds. He told Reynolds of wrapping his time in the studio, “…I just finished recording the drums, so all the drums, they are recorded. They are done. I finished, like, 10 days ago or a week ago.”
That chat further saw Casagrande describe the creative process for this record, which will be his first since joining the band back in 2024. Casagrande went on to say of the writing and recording sessions [transcribed by Blabbermouth.net]:
“It’s been crazy. No, actually, we started the process since last year, at the end of ’25. Me and Jim Root, we started exchanging some riffs, some drum beats, so we started the process back there. And I think for the first time, it was February or March, we played together. We stayed in the studio together. So the process started with me and Jim and Clown in the studio just jamming.
So we would jam all day long, at least for three or four hours a day, and record everything that we could and then listen to what we played together and try to find those special moments that we felt connected. So the process started like that… I would throw some drum beats, try different things, and Jim would react to what I was playing, and the other way around as well.
He started playing something, and I would jump in and start following him. So that was it. For two months, I think — I stayed here the first time for two weeks, and then we came after that, and we stayed again for two or three weeks. And then we had a jam with the whole band, like the core band.
So the third time that we jammed, it was me, Mick , Jim, VMan and Clown. Pfaff as well. So we had the whole band jamming. Just jamming. So we were able to get some cells from the instruments, some stuff that we felt connected, and we were able to chop that, to choose that, to cut that, and then start something from that thing, from that little bit.”
Asked about the band’s divisive surprise single “Arsenal“, which saw a release this past September, Casagrande said that track originated from Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor. Casagrande stated:
“Oh, that’s a Corey Taylor song. Yeah, that’s a song that he sent me at the beginning of the year. And then Jim wrote the riffs to the song. So that song didn’t come out from a jam. That’s a Corey Taylor song.”
Speaking further on his contributions to that particular song, Casagrande went on to say:
“…I changed it, everything pretty much. Yes, I had to change [it] because I think when Corey sent the song, he had an idea about what he wanted for the song, or he had just the idea for the melody, for the lyrics. But the drums, they were quite basic. At the beginning I was trying to respect the song, because he gave me a song. And I was, like, ‘Okay, I’m not gonna change that,’ because it’s ready to go. We can call it a song.
So I don’t wanna make crazy things, and Corey Taylor‘s gonna be, like, ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ So I tried to respect what he gave at us at first. And then we were working in the studio with Clown and Matt Wallace. So during one of those jams that we were playing every day, that song showed up, and Clown was, like, ‘Let’s work on ‘Arsenal‘. Let’s change the drums. Let’s make it more interesting.’ So me and Clown, we started thinking what I could do regarding drums.
And those type of bits, the first thing that came to my mind, to make it sound more aggressive, more hypnotic, to bring the crazy sh*t about Slipknot, the craziness about Slipknot. So then I started playing that, trying different things, and until the day that we recorded the single, I didn’t know exactly what I was gonna play. So we started jamming, the whole band again. We had the idea, the demo of the song. And we started jamming again.
We played it for the whole afternoon. And then at the beginning of the evening, I recorded the song. It’s only one take. It’s a full take. That’s what we are trying to do right now. Most of the songs that I did, they’re just one take. It’s just like playing a show — just like playing a song in a show. And we want to keep that real. We don’t wanna do overdubs. I didn’t wanna do overdubs. I don’t wanna do push-ins, punch-ins. I don’t wanna do that. I wanna just play straight.”
Taylor himself previously described “Arsenal” as being “a pummeling experience.” Despite the band’s percussionist/art director M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan openly embracing AI, Casagrande put forth that this new record will offer a human experience:
“On the future album that’s gonna come out, on the new songs, people are gonna listen to them, they are 100% real. Nowadays it’s very easy to listen to perfect music, perfection, but that’s not what we are trying to achieve here. We are trying to achieve reality, to be honest, to be real for the fans, for the people who are gonna listen to our music. So that was my mentality since day one when I was recording the album. I wanna make it sound real, like it’s a human being playing the drums.
“I’m not a machine. I’m not perfect, and I wanna keep that reality in the album because nowadays you see the kids that, the teenagers that start playing the drums… A few years ago I used to give classes in São Paulo. I used to have many students, and they think that what they listen in a record, especially from the new metal bands, they think that’s the reality. And it’s not. It never is.
So I was trying to keep it real — to be honest, to be like in a real-life situation, that sometimes you’re good, sometimes you’re bad, and you gotta deal with that. So, when I was recording the songs, I was playing them many, many times — like five, six, seven times each one of the songs — and the best take was, like, ‘Okay, I think I like the last one. That’s my favorite one. Let’s use it.’ Sometimes I was putting some songs together — choosing half of one take, half of the other take, but never punch-ins. Never like that.”
After somewhat briefly enjoying their time as free agents following the conclusion of their deal with Roadrunner Records, Slipknot have once again partnered with the aforementioned label and Atlantic Records to launch a new label of their own, (sic)est Records. Meanwhile, this next record finds the band facing additional scrutiny, given the firing of DJ Sid Wilson earlier this year and the 2023 departure of another classic era member, sampler, etc. Craig “133” Jones.
