Former SLIPKNOT Drummer JOEY JORDISON Completes New Album With Producer KATO KHANDWALA

Former SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison has completed work on a new studio album with producer Kato Khandwala, who has previously worked with THE PRETTY RECKLESS and WE ARE THE HARLOT. Joining Jordison in the project is singer Kalen Chase, who has toured with KORN as a backing vocalist and percussionist.

It is not presently clear if Joey's new album will be made available as the sophomore effort from SCAR THE MARTYR, which was the name of Joey's project that released a self-titled debut CD in 2013.

Singer Henry Derek Bonner quit SCAR THE MARTYR in April 2014 and has since joined ACT OF DEFIANCE, the new band formed by ex-MEGADETH members Shawn Drover (drums) and Chris Broderick (guitar). Bonner told BLABBERMOUTH.NET at the time that he was leaving SCAR THE MARTYR "due to personal differences, artistic direction and a slew of business decisions that I cannot simply ignore."

SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison, one of the band's founding members and key songwriters. SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor told Metal Hammer that firing Jordison after 18 years was "one of the hardest decisions" the group ever made, adding that Jordison is "in a place in his life" which is "not where we are."

Taylor said he could not get into specifics for legal reasons, but admitted, "It's when a relationship hits that T-section and one person's going one way and you're going the other. And try as you might to either get them to go your way or try and go their way, at some point you've got to go in the direction that works for you. This is me speaking in the broadest terms, with respect to Joey. I guess to sum it up, it was one of the hardest decisions we ever made."

Taylor said that the band is "happy right now and we hope that he is . . . he's just in a place in his life, right now, that's not where we are."

The singer would not answer whether drug use played a role in Jordison's dismissal, and confessed that he had not been in touch with his former bandmate. Taylor said, "I haven't talked to Joey in a while, to be honest. That's how different we are. It's not because I don't love him and I don't miss him. And it is painful; we talk about him all the time, but at the same time, do we miss him or do we miss the old him? That's what it really comes down to."

SLIPKNOT's new drummer is Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.

SCAR THE MARTYR's self-titled debut album sold around 3,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 129 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was made available on October 1, 2013 via Roadrunner Records.