Slipknot: "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses" Is Their Best Album Yet

Band Photo: Slipknot (?)

In a recent interview posted on CNN.com, members of Slipknot, namely Joey Jordison, Chris Fehn and Corey Taylor, talked about their music, their new album and the masks. Here are a few excerpts from the interview:

How did you come up with the concept for this band?

COREY TAYLOR: Just looking at not only what was going on a local level but an international level and just kind of being disgusted. It was all flash and no filling. It was very plastic with no presence. The thing we wanted to do was make a statement. It occurred to us that if we remove ourselves from the equation and just presented a unified front, it would have a greater impact, a more artistic impact. It's really a physical manifestation of what the music is.

And what is the music?

JOEY JORDISON: Dark, very dark, but at the same time very moving and beautiful in its own way.

Why wear masks?

JORDISON: It shows we're a solid unit. All of us coming together for a purpose. The masks are a physical representation of how the music makes us feel.

It must make you feel bad. One mask looks like Leatherface from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."

TAYLOR: It's really easy to compare us to stuff like that, because we wear masks. But we don't write about horror movies, we don't go out of our way to act like a horror movie.

CHRIS FEHN: I think this band is made up of a mental sickness. When I joined the band, before and after practice, they'd be looking online at murder photos, death and bondage photos.

TAYLOR: We had issues.

What kind of issues?

TAYLOR: You don't have enough time, or tape. And you'd have to go get help afterward. All you have to really do is listen to our music.

Seriously, what is your problem?

TAYLOR: As far as our beefs go, you'd have to grow up in Des Moines, Iowa, and really deal with the things that we had to deal with. I don't want to get into my background because I already talked about it on albums so I don't want to rehash. But there are real beefs that we have, and it hasn't changed since day one why we do this.

JORDISON: I hate the cliche of it, but growing up is hard. For anyone. So there's that backdrop. You find something to grasp onto like music, and you try to get it going and be creative and you get put down, and get your fliers torn down.

Will you run out of stuff eventually to write about?

TAYLOR: Just when we stop talking about the past the present gives us enough stuff to be angry about for the rest of our lives. Just being in this band and seeing the way people interpret us is enough to frustrate even the most ardent artist.

How do you think you're interpreted?

TAYLOR: I think we're interpreted as a novelty, and that really bothers me because there is so much substance in this band. People get stuck on the aesthetic, and it's (expletive).

JORDISON: We're not an easily digestible band on the first listen.

Are you pleased with this album?

JORDISON: I think it's our best album yet. We will always be a metal band with aggro and high risk, but this album shows there's not just one Slipknot sound. We're capable of such range.

TAYLOR: "Iowa" was a very bleak, dark album. But this one you can hear colors, traces of reds and I think that shows how we've evolved as musicians. Plus, coming back together and working together was really a joy.

Read the full article at CNN.com.

Source: CNN.com