Smoke Star - Slipknot - Girls Top

Corey Taylor is on tenterhooks. He is straining at the leash to go on tour, leave his private life (recent divorce, two toddlers, messy flat) for the moment and present himself in more than top form - as he puts it: "With Slipknot, I never sang as well as I'm able to, but deliberately much worse. Just because the others said it shouldn't be too good because then, it wouldn't sound very convincing - I thought that was incredible, but anyway... But now, I prevailed. I've been working out for weeks to be in good shape - I go for the kill, man. After all, we haven't seen a stage for three and a half years." A phase during which all Slipknot members pursued various more or less successful solo projects: Corey and Jim with Stone Sour, the clown with To My Surprise, and Joey with Murderdolls or as session drummer for Korn and Ministry... Not everybody takes the return to the band structure easy though, let alone Corey, who was ready to record a third Stone Sour album, having already 45 new songs in store - he wanted to go on with that. "It was simply smooth running with us: we had all these fantastic offers, the Foo Fighters wanted us to open their show in Madison Square Garden in New York. We had to cancel that because it didn't fit into the schedule: Joey wanted to start with the Slipknot album by any means, and so we all gathered - I just couldn't say no." But the 34-year-old, living in a decent neighbourhood in Des Moines, Iowa, is a workaholic anyway: right now, he's trying his hand as producer (Walls Of Jericho), manager (local heroes Facecage), and musician in not less than five bands: Slipknot, Stone Sour, Metal cover combo Dumb Fucks, Tenacious D. tribute band Audacious P. - plus, last but not least, the Funk gang JBKB (Junk Beer Kidnapp Band). "I need that to freely express my creativity", the profusely tattooed singer laughs. "Plus, it's big fun - a good antipole to Slipknot..." which kept him pretty busy the last months. The bunch has recorded 14 new tracks with producer Dave Fortman (Mudvayne, Evanescence) which will be released on August the 22nd - title: "All hope is gone". This new material features some changes regarding sound: starting with Corey's vocals (clearer and stronger), spiced up with hefty Speed Metal and Thrash (reflected in several brisk guitar soli) unto a versatility which would never have been possible on earlier Slipknot outputs. The nine guys like to vary tempo and rhythm and do not always sound tough as nails, but sometimes even gloomy and ominous - they use keyboards, piano and acoustic guitars, and percussions and Joey's double bass drum make for an incredibly tight sound almost blowing the listener away. "It is our toughest album so far, but tough in another way than the others", Corey explains. "It is not so in-your-face and out for the kill, it has class and quality. The songs are more sophisticated and elaborate - that's what's making them so dangerous. Now we know what we're doing, and we're more focused." That sounds like a challenge - and is meant as one. The lyrics deal less with Corey and more with his current impressions of America - the redhead settles some scores with politicians, managers, religious zealots, unprogressive patriots and moralisers. "I enjoy living in this country", he starts. "But over here, so much shit happens, so much sick stuff, but nobody seems to care. Simply because people are full of that right propaganda crap, dumb paroles, and totally unimportant information. They've been fed with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan all the time, so that they don't realise things are going on around them - as a result, they can't fight against that crap. Reminds me of George Orwell's '1984' - and it's damned real." And that's why he hopes for an election victory of Obama instead of McCain who would be a second George Bush. "It just shouldn't get that far. That's why I hope the kids out there notice the texts and not only the masks." ...which have become mere accessories in the meantime, something they have to hold on to because these masks have become independent, and because maybe they would lose some of their live power without them. "Of course we often feel that the masks get too much attention - more than the music. That annoys us. But totally without them - that wouldn't work. We would be Kiss, and we don't want that to happen." Anyway, they don't spend so much time and money on their outfits like they used to: half of the new masks are simply the old ones. The others - Corey, too - have modified theirs just a bit. "You can't see my eyes anymore - what makes it even scarier." The so-called "Big Heads" (looking like those statues on the Easter Islands) being shown on their homepage for weeks, though, were just a sham to set the fans on the wrong track. "I almost died laughing when I read the stuff on the net - those folks really took that seriously! How am I supposed to sing with that thing on my head - or what about head banging? Funny enough, many people fell for it - just great!"