Slipknot frontman, solo artist, one of metal’s loudest loudmouths – Corey Taylor wears plenty of hats. In 2011, Metal Hammer sat him down to learn about the music which made him him. From Iron Maiden to Depeche Mode and Ray LaMontagne, these are the albums that rewrote his DNA.
Iron Maiden – Powerslave (EMI, 1984)
“The first album that I ever got for Christmas was Powerslave. It was before gift certificates so I asked my grandma to take me out to get some music and she bought me this and Mötley Crüe’s Girls, Girls, Girls on cassette. I knew before we got to the store that I had to have Iron Maiden.”
Iron Maiden – Somewhere In Time (EMI, 1986)
“Something by Pink Floyd would come close but I always come back to Somewhere In Time. I got it and had the gatefold and pulled the whole painting out so I could look at all of the Blade Runner shit that’s going on and there is so much to take in, I must have looked at it for an hour at least.”
Amen – Amen (Roadrunner, 1999)
“That album is so fucking good! I remember when it came out – I had just bought a CD player for my shitty car, we had three days off on the Slipknot tour and I finally got to drive my car. I got that piece of shit car way faster than it should have been able to go to the sound of that album.”
Quiet Riot – Quiet Riot III (Pasha, 1986)
“That was the first album that I bought that made me go, ‘Ouch!’ I loved The Wild And The Young from it so I thought it’d be awesome but it was just plain fucking weird.”
Ray LaMontagne – Trouble (RCA, 2004)
“So. Fucking. Beautiful. I worship that dude. There’s not one bad song on here. Writing acoustic is what I love to do and that album is loaded with incredible songs that I’m pissed off that I didn’t write.”
Slipknot – Slipknot / Stone Sour – Audio Secrecy (Roadrunner)
“I’m pretty proud of everything I’ve done but if I had to do it, I’d say the first Slipknot album and Audio Secrecy. They’re both ends of the spectrum of what I do. The first Slipknot album is all chaos; the Stone Sour album is a baring of the soul.”
Metallica – Master Of Puppets (Elektra, 1986)
“Bar none, this is the quintessential metal album. Metallica have melody and ferocious riffs in abundance and every riff, every vocal, every drum beat, every performance, every second of that album is fucking perfect. Top to bottom, it is probably in my top two albums ever made.”
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti (Swan Song, 1975)
“I don’t think I’d want an album, that’d be a long-ass funeral, but I’ve always wanted In My Time Of Dying by Led Zeppelin. It’s so multi-dimensional and goes through so many twists and turns and I don’t think it gets enough credit for how fucking gorgeous it is. It’s a killer tune: the slide guitars and Bonham’s backbeat on that tune is unrelenting!”
Depeche Mode – 101 (Mute, 1989)
“The first album I had sex to was a Depeche Mode live album. It was right after it had come out and I was dating a girl who was really into them. I was into them but that album − or it could have been the sex − really made me turn the corner with them. I’ll put my hand up as a Depeche Mode fan after that one! Ha ha!”
The Cast Of Les Misérables – Les Misérables: The Dream Cast In Concert (BBC Video, 2008)
“It’s a two-disc set and it comes from one of my favourite musicals. They handpicked the people who had played the characters best to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the show and it’s fantastic. I’ve put it in a playlist on my iPod and I will sit and listen to the whole thing from start to finish.”
Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 220, August 2011. The brand-new issue contains a verbal history of Slipknot’s second album, Iowa, from producer Ross Robinson. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.
