SLIPKNOT Percussionist Confirms Plans For New Studio Album

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan has confirmed that the band has plans to record another studio album.

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has been ambivalent about doing a new studio album following the death in May 2010 of the group's bassist, Paul Gray, although Crahan and drummer Joey Jordison have been much more confident about the band recording again.

SLIPKNOT completed a European festival run this past summer, which marked the band's first live gigs since Gray's passing.

Asked by U.K.'s Kerrang! magazine about the band's future plans, Crahan replied, "There's plans [to make another record] but that's a way off. No one will push it, because it's going to be a big one. It'll be closer to 'Iowa', but it'll be sadder and crazier. And really thought provoking, it could even be conceptual."

He continued, "We're still taking some time to reflect on our brother [Gray]. Everybody needs to be collecting thoughts so they can get it out and no one has really had time to collect thoughts yet. But we're the fucking 'KNOT. And when we come out, you'll know your band is done."

Speaking about the prospect of recording a new SLIPKNOT CD, Taylor told Kerrang! magazine in August, "It's still too soon. At least that's how I feel. I'm not ready to make a SLIPKNOT album. I think there will be a day when we do. But for me, doing it now wouldn't make sense.

"You can't do a three-week tour then jump into the studio, especially after something like this. It makes more sense to do a few more tours and reconnect as a band first.

"If we jumped right in, it wouldn't be about the absence. It would be about the rest of us. We were the nine, but there's a piece missing. We should allow people to pay their respects before we come out with new music. We should do this right."

Jordison told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that he thinks the band's next album could be its most intense. "We're a family, and losing a family member sucks," he said. "But you can't help that, but you need to move on and I think that what we're gonna do might be the most powerful thing that we've ever created."

SLIPKNOT's last record, "All Hope Is Gone", was released in 2008.

Taylor and Crahan recently confirmed that SLIPKNOT will tour the U.S. sometime next spring.

Quality HD video footage of SLIPKNOT's June 30, 2011 concert at Ledovyi Dvoretz in St. Petersburg, Russia can be seen below.