SLIPKNOT To Enter Studio In November 2018, Says SHAWN 'CLOWN' CRAHAN

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan has told NME in a new interview that the band is "about a year away from being in the studio" to record the follow-up to 2014's ".5: The Gray Chapter" album. "We make an album, we tour for three years, we take two years off," he explained. "It got a little screwed up after 'All Hope [Is Gone]' [the band's fourth album], because Paul [Gray, bass] passed away, so we took time off, took time with our kids, and toured for a couple of years until it felt right. Then when it felt right, Joey [Jordison, drums] took off."

He continued: "I'll be in the studio in November 2018. There's a plethora of shit written. I don't wanna be told by a label when to write, like some fucking Cheerio. I wanna write because I write.

"I've made people so much fucking money — pay for the studio, give me this engineer, give me this producer. It's just jamming, but I've never heard music like this, that we're doing right now. I'll be 50 by the time it comes out. I'll be touring when I'm 50; they'll throw me a birthday party! So where I'm at these days, I'm like, 'Maybe make it the last one.'"

Asked to clarify if the meant the end of SLIPKNOT, Crahan said: "Who knows? I don't have to explain myself to anyone. I'm not gonna be, like, 'Farewell tour!', then come back. Never say those words to fans — you have to come back if you say that. For me, it's, like, I'm going to go fishing indefinitely."

SLIPKNOT's touring cycle in support of ".5: The Gray Chapter", ended in November 2016, with singer Corey Taylor returning to his other band STONE SOUR this year.

In a recent interview with Metal Wani, 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.