Taylor: Heavy metal an outlet for anger

Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor says that metal helps fans face up to reality in an age of global tragedy.

The 41-year-old spoke at a press conference ahead of Knotfest in Mexico City alongside guitarist Jim Root and percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan.

In the wake of the Paris terror attacks and other such incidents around the world, Taylor described the world as “insane” and “crazy” – but says that Slipknot try to reach out to listeners and support good causes during troubled times.

He said: “Our fans are very capable of looking at what’s going on right now and being able to process it than fans who listen to music that’s a little more chipper, a little more happy.

“It’s a shock for them, because they’re not used to it, but because our fans have been able to adjust and use that anger to kind of even themselves out, they can look at it and they can process it. They can go, ‘Okay, now what needs to be done? Instead of offering prayers and thoughts, what needs to be done?’

“And I think that’s one of the things that we offer as a band.”

Meanwhile, Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg has described hearing the band for the first time when he was just 10-years-old. He tells Zildjian: “I first started thinking about playing music in general the first time I ever saw Slipknot, when I was 10-years-old. I don’t know the words to describe it, but it made me be like, ‘I have to do that. Somehow, I’m gonna get there.’

“Through trial and error of picking up a guitar and not being into that, picking up a bass and not being so much into it. Drums was it, it was so on when I chose to stick with drums.”

Slipknot play a series of arena dates in the UK early next year.

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.