SLIPKNOT's COREY TAYLOR: 'We Are Coming Back With A Whole New Sickness'

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has spoken to Britain's Rock Sound magazine about the group's as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2001's "Iowa", tentatively due this summer through Roadrunner Records.

According to Taylor, SLIPKNOT entered the studio with 13 complete songs. They have since written 10 more. Musically, Taylor promises the album will be different from "Iowa". "The darkness is still there, but we've lightened up since then," he said. "[Producer] Rick Rubin has a credo that I have always believed in, but it took him to say it for everyone to realize it: that you can be just as extreme with a whisper as with a scream. That set the tone for the album. There will be skull-crushing crazy screaming songs, but there's also beautiful fucking melody and a lot of different styles we haven't tried."

Despite SLIPKNOT's last shows being back in early 2002, Taylor has no doubts about the size of their fanbase.

"When I was on the road with STONE SOUR, kids would ask me when the next SLIPKNOT record would be coming out," he says. "I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of kids from all over the world. The fans want it. They have been with us since day one, and even when things have been at their worst, it's been the kids who have brought us back. They were there for us, and we were there for them. This album is either a good way to say goodbye or that we will still be around," continued Taylor. "Obviously we are bandying around about the idea of making this our last album, but at the same time, we are just playing it by ear. We'll get done with this, do a tour, and then do out own projects for a while. Then we'll see if we want to get together to write another one. This album is going to take us in directions we never thought we would go in, and show people that just when they thought they had us figured out, they don't know shit. We are coming back with a whole new fucking sickness."