Slipknot have 20 demos in the bag and hope to start touring again next summer

Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor says the band have demoed 20 tracks as they work on the follow-up to 2014’s .5: The Gray Chapter.

The band have previously hinted that the record will appear in 2019, with Taylor now giving an update on progress and hinting at further releases after the album launches.

He tells Resurrection Fest TV: “Next year is a big year for Slipknot. We’re definitely thinking about a big world tour. We’re going to try and play everywhere in the world.”

Asked about the album’s release date, Taylor says: "Probably summer. It all depends on when we get in the studio. 

“Right now, the plan is for us to be in the studio early next year, in the first couple of months. So, a couple of months to get that going, a couple of months to get production, new masks, new outfits, new everything. And hopefully be able to come and start touring in the summer when the album comes out.”

He adds: “Right now, we have 20 songs that we’ve demoed. And they’re really good. So it’ll just come down to which ones come out the best and we make the album out of that.

“However, the way we’re talking right now, we’re trying to find ways that everyone can hear all the songs. So we’ll put the album out and then maybe we’ll release something after that. 

“It’s something that we’re trying to think of –giving the audience more, giving the fans more of us.

“But it’s gotta make sense, it’s gotta be Slipknot. It can’t just be something we throw out there because we can. It’s gotta have art, it’s gotta have content, it’s gotta have passion to it.”

Last week, Slipknot’s Shawn “Clown” Crahan reported that the band were lining up "a little something" to mark the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album in 2019.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.