Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor recently sat down with The Fader to discuss the band’s chart-topping new album “We Are Not Your Kind” and more. When asked how it feels that the band’s music has influenced a wide variety of up and coming artists from different genres, he stated:
“It’s something that we’ve never really thought about until it started happening, because we’ve always kind of been an island unto ourselves. All these artists who we’ve inspired, it was almost accidental because we were just trying to do our own thing.
We’re still almost regarded with disdain by the metal pantheon, which is fine. I don’t give a fuck. I’m here for them [points to the stadium]. So, at one point it’s gratifying that people are quoting us as inspiration, but at the same time it hasn’t changed anything ‘cause people still hate us.
People have always tried to push us into the nü-metal thing. They’ve also tried to include us in with the American wave of heavy metal because of how aggressive we were. I mean, we’ve had some blatant hip-hop, not even the fucking nu-metal side, but blatant hip-hop.”
When it was pointed out that he sounded like he was rapping on “Spit It Out“, Taylor replied:
“Oh yeah, absolutely. But people don’t realize is that’s a hardcore song. That’s me channeling H.R. [of Bad Brains] and everything that I grew up listening to, and just spitting as hard as I could.”
Meanwhile, he also revealed an apparent internal color scheme the band use for their albums. Speaking on the potential significance the phrase “I’m counting all the killers” appearing on both the opening and closing tracks of “We Are Not Your Kind“, Taylor stated:
“You’d have to ask Clown. A lot of the intros and a lot of these songs come from his mind. It’s also what gives every album its color. This album, man, is a stark gunmetal. Whereas Iowa is the deepest black you could ever even think of. The first album is red, obviously. But then you have Vol. 3, which is like a blue. All Hope Is Gone is like a dirty green. And then .5 is more of a subdued gray.
The “killers” line is about standing on the precipice of change in your life. Realizing that when you’re all by yourself and that you’re in a horrible fucking place in your life, you can count all the things that are holding you down. Not even anchors, but just fucking bullets coming at you. And you can either charge through it and try to get to safety or you can just let them fucking kill you. Which one feels more righteous?”
You can find more from Taylor over at The Fader.
