Corey Taylor has explained the meaning behind the title of Slipknot‘s forthcoming seventh album, ‘The End, So Far’.
The metal titans are due to release the record – the follow-up to 2019’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ – on September 30 via Roadrunner (pre-order/pre-save here). It’ll feature the previous singles ‘The Chapeltown Rag’, ‘The Dying Song (Time To Sing)’ and ‘Yen’.
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During a live show over the summer, frontman Taylor took a moment to “clear up” any rumours that suggested the name of Slipknot’s forthcoming album could be signalling the band’s impending break-up.
“That could not be further from the fucking truth, my friends,” he told the crowd that night. “The reason the name is ‘The End, So Far’ is because it is the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another chapter. Can you fucking feel me out there my friends?!”
Taylor addressed this speculation once again while appearing on a recent edition of SiriusXM‘s ‘Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk’ (via Blabbermouth), where he offered a more in-depth explanation.
“People have been talking about the end of Slipknot since 2003, so it doesn’t really matter,” he said. “If I had a nickel for every time I’ve had to straighten fans out, I’d have a shit-tonne of nickels, let’s put it that way.
“Nothing sells albums like drama, let’s put it that way, and even drama that doesn’t even come from us; it just comes from the fans. But at the same time, I kind of started saying onstage… explaining what the title is.”
He continued: “It’s the fact that it’s… It’s the end so far, which just means it’s the end of one era and the start of the next.”
Taylor went on to cite some of Slipknot’s “favourite bands” – including Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Metallica – who he said have all had “different eras in their career; it’s never been a straight line”.
“There’s no through line except for the members,” he told the programme. “And every era comes to a natural end and then it’s the next one. So that’s what the title [‘The End, So Far’] reflects.”
Taylor continued: “For me, it’s more about just letting the fans know that we will be back and to remind them that you just never know what you’re gonna get with us.”
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The singer explained that “every album has always felt different” from the last, adding: “I feel like this era is more about us dealing with the grief that we’ve had to deal with and now kind of getting to the point where we can now move on comfortably into the future, and it’s not about that.
“The next era will definitely be more of like a ‘gloves off, let’s just see what happens and go for it’.”
‘The End, So Far’ will mark Slipknot’s final album with Roadrunner after first signing with the label in 1998.
During a previous interview, Taylor explained that the project “felt almost like a reset” for the group.
“So there’s still great rock and roll on it,” he said. “There’s some heavier stuff, but there’s some really great slower stuff. It’s gonna be really rad.”
