SLIPKNOT Has '27 Pieces Of Work' Written For Next Album, Says SHAWN 'THE CLOWN' CRAHAN

Shawn "The Clown" Crahan has revealed that SLIPKNOT has "about twenty-seven pieces of work" written for the band's follow-up to 2014's ".5: The Gray Chapter" album.

SLIPKNOT's touring cycle in support of ".5: The Gray Chapter", ended in November, with singer Corey Taylor returning to his other band STONE SOUR this year.

".5: The Gray Chapter" was released following a six-year hiatus during which founding SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray died and drummer Joey Jordison was dismissed.

Speaking to NME, Crahan stated about SLIPKNOT's current status: "We have decided to do things differently. Our label had been bought and sold, people who used to give me advice are gone now, we're still standing. We're not going to wait around for Corey Taylor to say that he's ready, no one's going to wait for me to finish directing a movie, the same thing goes if someone wants to go out on tour with someone else.

"Every three or four months we've been getting together and we've been writing for up to thirty days," he continued. "Currently, we have about twenty-seven pieces of work — about seven or eight are completed. They're not completed songs, that's far from the truth. That's where people start fighting over Corey Taylor not being there or Jim [Root, guitar] wanting to do something else. We as artists have demanded that we get together every three or four months and blow our brains out with art. We've been trying to create as much art as possible."

When asked about a potential timeline for SLIPKNOT's next album, the percussionist replied: "For the three years we toured, we were writing and recording the whole time. We'll be getting together in September. Corey Taylor is doing his thing right now with STONE SOUR, and when he's done, he'll need a little time off. He's always done that. Then he'll be right back in it, writing SLIPKNOT songs and lyrics.

"A lot of us are meeting up in September to start working on those twenty-seven pieces of music and we're going to add to that," he explained. "Our goal is to get to somewhere where it feels like we could have a double album. Whether or not we'll get to that, I have no idea. It's almost an impossible thing to arrive at because you have to have so much music and pick what's right. But I would like to have a double album and I would like to have a concept album. I've been speaking to Corey and Jim and we're not just going to 'do it,' we're not going to be contrived. It has to be right, it has to work for all of us."

Crahan told BBC Radio 1's "Rock Show" in 2015 that he would love to see the band record a double concept album in the vein of PINK FLOYD's "The Wall" and THE BEATLES' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", with a movie to go along with the project.

In a recent interview with Metal Wani, Corey Taylor spoke about a possible musical direction for SLIPKNOT's next album, saying that nothing has yet been decided. "I know I wanna write something violent, to be honest," he said. "I wanna do something that feels uncomfortable. I wanna go somewhere where we haven't been in a long, long time. I don't know what that means, but I think when I hear it, I'll know what it is."

".5: The Gray Chapter" sold around 132,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores in October 2014 via Roadrunner.

Gray died in 2010 from a drug overdose, while Jordison was let go in December 2013, just before SLIPKNOT began recording the last album.

A new SLIPKNOT film, documenting the Iowa band's first-ever visit to Mexico in December 2015, will be premiered in more than a thousand screens across the world as a one-night-only cinematic spectacle on September 6.

Directed by Crahan, "Day Of The Gusano" features exclusive interviews with SLIPKNOT's members talking about the importance of their fanbase and the band's long-awaited first-ever show in Mexico City.