COREY TAYLOR Says '.5: The Gray Chapter' Is His Favorite SLIPKNOT Album So Far

Stephen Wayne of iRockRadio.com conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor before the band's August 2 concert at Xfinity Theater in Hartford, Connecticut. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On SLIPKNOT regrouping for the making of the band's latest album, ".5: The Gray Chapter":

"It's cool. The cool thing is that we all genuinely get excited about getting back together. We tour just long enough for us to hate each other's guts, and then we take time off, [and] we kind of go and do our own thing. And then we start kind of throwing music at each other, and it gets us excited. I mean, our reasons for making music haven't changed since the beginning. So, for us, it's the excitement of what's next — what's the next stage? How do we expand the range of what we do musically and still have it maintain the intensity that is SLIPKNOT. So, for us, it's all about experimentation and the fury, and just kind of taking those two things and shoving 'em together."

On the making of ".5: The Gray Chapter":

"It was a little bittersweet at first, obviously, because we knew that not only was this our first studio album without [late SLIPKNOT bassist] Paul [Gray], it was going to be about him and about everything that led up to that day. I mean, it was heavy duty. But once we started sharing with each other and getting really excited about the music, it made it a much more positive experience. And I'm very proud of this album. It's probably my favorite that we've done so far."

On SLIPKNOT's current stage show:

"We do it our way no matter what. If we do it the wrong way, we learn from it, and then we do it the right way next time. But that's the best way to cut your teeth and learn how to do it the right way — to make mistakes and do stuff like that. We've been doing this a long time, and we've gotten to the point where we have a vision and we can actually afford to be able to create that vision for the fans. And it's awesome. We're having so much right now that it's kind of hard to believe that we've been touring already for, you know, eight, nine months."

".5: The Gray Chapter" was released in October 2014 following a six-year hiatus during which Gray died and original drummer Joey Jordison was dismissed. Since the CD's release, several of the SLIPKNOT band members, including guitarists Jim Root and Mick Thomson, have expressed hope that the group could record the follow-up effort sooner than expected, with Root claiming in recent interviews to have already begin compiling ideas for SLIPKNOT's next release.

SLIPKNOT's "Summer's Last Stand" tour kicked off on July 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida, and will wrap up on September 5 in Dallas.