COREY TAYLOR: SLIPKNOT Is Using Internet As Tool To Build Excitement For New Album

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor believes that the band has been able to successfully use the Internet to build anticipation for its long-awaited fifth studio album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", calling the process "a lost art" which not enough other artists are taking advantage of.

Asked in a recent interview with Mistress Carrie of the Worcester/Boston, Massachusetts radio station WAAF if promoting SLIPKNOT is more fun now that social networking sites have revolutionized the way people communicate, collaborate, receive information and share news on a mass scale than it was when the band first started in the mid-1990s, Taylor said: "I think it's the same approach with different tools, really. Because back then the Internet was really just word of mouth. And that's how this band started, that's how this band built its foundation — was street level, word of mouth, people talking about us. And that's really just what the Internet is. And I think because of that, and because we've learned how to use these tools over the years, we've been able to take an old-school approach with the mystique and the anticipation and releasing little bits and pieces here and there to build that excitement, [which] I think is really a lost art."

He continued: "People are more prone to just throw up into the Internet, and then, 'There you go. There it is. And let's pray to God it's a hit.' With us, we love the foreplay of it. We love building that up and just getting it to that fever pitch just before it's about to explode, and then giving the audience every ounce of payoff that it deserves. And I think, because of that, we've really learned how to use the Internet as that tool to do that, by releasing the teaser videos and putting together a very stark, very striking video for 'The Negative One', which there is no member of the band in it. And I think that's one of the wonderful things about being able to use technology to your advantage and not using it to glom over the fact that you have no talent or no idea what the hell you're doing. When you use it right, you can have that same excitement that you used to feel when your favorite band was putting out an album and you couldn't wait for it. And I think we've been able to do a good job at it."

SLIPKNOT released half a dozen teaser videos for ".5: The Gray Chapter" earlier in the summer, all of them featuring a series of fast-moving, creepy images accompanied by captions which turned out to be lyrics from "The Negative One", the first song to be made available from the album.

Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that he's relieved the long wait for a new SLIPKNOT record is about to end. "You know, we're really excited about new music," he said. "We're excited about the next chapter, you know. Obviously it's a bit subdued, but at the same time, you know, it's still very much in the spirit of what we want and it's time for the next chapter."

The first official single from ".5: The Gray Chapter", called "The Devil In I", has just entered the Top 20 at rock radio.

The album is the first without bassist Paul Gray, who died in May 2010, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was dismissed in 2013.

The identity of SLIPKNOT's new drummer is still a secret, although it is widely believed to be Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.

There are also reports that the band is working with bassist Alessandro "Vman" Venturella, who has served as a guitar tech for MASTODON, FIGHTSTAR and COHEED AND CAMBRIA and was also a member of KROKODIL.

SLIPKNOT is no longer using Donnie Steele, the group's original guitar player who has been playing bass since they resumed touring in 2011.