"This album is either going to change the world or drive the world to destroy us," says Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor about the band's upcoming fourth record, the follow-up to 2001's Iowa.The Des Moines, Iowa, metal outfit is currently working on the set in Los Angeles with producer Rick Rubin. "We've been working out of the Houdini mansion," Taylor says. "When we were working on the first album, we all basically lived at the studio. There was that closeness, almost communal. It's been really good to get back all of us back together. We're having a really good time."

According to Taylor, the band has written about eighteen songs already and doesn't see the need to slow down. "The best thing about being in the studio is if you get an idea, you just lay it down," he says. "If something just happens spontaneously, you've got it on tape and you listen back to it and go, 'Let's rearrange it here and maybe add this and kind of go for it.' Everything can be recorded for posterity and improvement."

In addition to the ultraheavy riffs and frenetic energy that defined the band's last two offerings, Taylor promises a lot more melody this time around, especially on one yet-to-be-named track that the singer describes as "a cross between Pink Floyd and King Crimson."

"The chances we're taking right now are in directions we never thought we'd go," he says. "There are so many things that are going to surprise people."

For his part, Taylor's toning it down a bit. "I learned a long time ago that you can be heavy without screaming your lungs out," he says. "I'm definitely taking a different approach to not just the delivery of what I do, but the things I'm saying. It's time to start talking about things other than myself. The stuff I've been writing is very philosophical."

Among the new tracks are songs that tackle religion and even love (from a stalker's point of view). "I wrote for it my fiancee from the perspective of 'what if I was a stalker and I had met her,'" Taylor explains. "It's a very moving piece, a very melodic piece."

And one track is Taylor's response to groups who blamed his band for encouraging violence. "We kind of became the scapegoat for a while," he says. "If anything bad happens, everybody wanted to blame us. You never hear about anyone going on a violent killing spree with Pat Boone in their headset, because that doesn't make headlines."

The album, scheduled for early next year, has neither a title nor a definite release date yet. "If you rush something it's going to sound rushed," Taylor says, dismissing the long break between Slipknot records. "There's no way we're putting something out without everyone being 100 percent sure, including Rick. He knows that if you push an artist, all that's going to do is block him. The kids have been there since day one, and they know if it's taking us a while, it's because we want to make sure we've got the best product that we can. Our kids deserve nothing fucking less than that, and I refuse to give them anything less."

DAVID PEISNER
(October 23, 2003)