JOSH RAND Has 'No Idea' When STONE SOUR Will Release Another Studio Album: 'The Band Is On Hiatus Right Now'

STONE SOUR guitarist Josh Rand says that he has "no idea" when the band will release a new studio album.

STONE SOUR has been off the road and out of sight since completing the touring cycle for its 2017 LP "Hydrograd". Singer Corey Taylor has been working with SLIPKNOT since then, recording and currently touring behind that group's sixth effort, "We Are Not Your Kind". Corey has also announced plans to release a solo album before eventually regrouping with STONE SOUR to make another LP.

Rand, who is currently promoting STONE SOUR's first official live album, "Hello, You Bastards: Live In Reno", was asked in a new interview with Guitar World if he has made much progress in the follow-up to "Hydrograd". He responded: "That's a good question… To be honest, the band is on hiatus right now with no timetable on a return. It's a mixture of needing a break, plus Corey wants to do a solo album, so I don't know when there will be new STONE SOUR music.

"I have started writing things but I don't want what it will end up being something later for STONE SOUR or maybe a new project for me or whatever," he continued. "I haven't really thought about it because I've been working on this live release, plus we have some exciting stuff getting announced next year which I can't say yet.

"But as far as a proper STONE SOUR record, I genuinely have no idea when that will happen."

"Hello, You Bastards: Live In Reno" arrives on December 13 on CD, digital, and as a numbered 180-gram double vinyl package. The latter is limited to 2500 copies and includes a poster, backstage pass, guitar pick, autographed setlist and more.

Taylor recently told WhatCulture Music that he has already written 26 songs for his long-in-the-works solo album, which he has hinted at doing over the years. He stated about the LP's musical direction: "It's definitely going to be rock-based, but it's going to be rock meets so many different things. There will be harder-edged stuff, but there also will be big, expansive, huge, world-changing guitar songs that you're going to want to sing along to. That's just who I am, and I'm not going to fight who I am."

Corey told Australia's Heavy magazine in 2018 that he and his STONE SOUR bandmates started writing new music "pretty much as soon as we got on the road" in support of "Hydrograd". "We just can't be stopped; we're just gluttons for punishment at this point," he said. "But the cool thing is that knowing that we've got all this great material, we can kind of enjoy the rest as much as we can because we know that when it's time to really start kind of ramping up the demo machine, we're gonna have all this cool stuff to listen to. There's no pressure for us to just run right in."

Taylor, who stepped away from STONE SOUR in 2019 to focus on SLIPKNOT, said that the former band's absence from the touring circuit "will allow the audience to miss [STONE SOUR], which is the best thing in the world you can have — that built-in need for a band to come back. Just when you think you can't wait any longer, here comes this band and they're, like, 'Oh, goddamn, they're so good right now.' So we're pretty stoked, man. We're definitely looking forward to trying to see if we can top 'Hydrograd'."