SLIPKNOT's New Single 'Arsenal' Won't Appear On Band's Next Studio Album

SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root says that the group's new single "Arsenal" is "not really representative" of the music he and his bandmates are working on for their upcoming album.

SLIPKNOT's first new song in over three years, the track arrived earlier this week alongside a music video directed by SLIPKNOT's M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan. It's SLIPKNOT's first piece of new music since the departure of longtime members Sid Wilson and Craig Jones, and the exit of drummer Jay Weinberg and addition of Eloy Casagrande. It is also the first SLIPKNOT release on the band's own (sic)est Records label following the completion of the group's two-and-a-half-decade record deal with Roadrunner.

"Arsenal" has received mixed views, with some SLIPKNOT fans saying it was a departure from the band's usual sound and criticizing the song's chorus, which features singer Corey Taylor repeatedly chanting, "Let's go, let's go, let's go".

Root addressed the negative feedback "Arsenal" has received so far, saying that the song is not indicative of the direction of the album he and his SLIPKNOT bandmates are currently working on.

In the comment section of a now-deleted post on Instagram, Root replied to one fan who asked if he was upset about the criticism of the song. "It depends on the commenter, really," Jim wrote. "I mean, what's their band doing?" he added, before confirming that "Arsenal" was made available as a standalone single.

"'Arsenal' was a tune we could quickly get out there while we work on the rest of the record," Root wrote. "It's not really representative of the other tunes."

Regarding whether the single will be a part of the upcoming SLIPKNOT album, Root wrote: "No. This was just one that we could finish 'sooner' to get out there."

"Arsenal" was premiered in the "Hottest Record" slot on BBC Radio 1's "New Music Show With Jack Saunders". Speaking to BBC Radio 1 presenter Jack Saunders, Taylor stated about the song: "It pummels. It is absolutely a pummeling experience. One of my favorite things about it is it kind of encapsulates everything that we do. It's got these great moments of hyperactivity, and then at the end, man, there's this sublime drop that just makes it. It's like we've got everyone by the hair, and we're just going, 'Go! Go!' That, to me, sums up SLIPKNOT completely."

"Arsenal" is the first new music from SLIPKNOT since the release of the 2023 standalone single "Bone Church", a track that had been in the works for nearly a decade.

When SLIPKNOT's next album arrives, it will be the follow-up to the band's latest LP, "The End, So Far", which came out in August 2022. It marked the band's the last full-length LP before the departure of both keyboardist Craig Jones, who left the group in June 2023, and drummer Jay Weinberg, who was replaced by Eloy Casagrande.

Last fall, SLIPKNOT sold its music catalog to HarbourView Equity Partners. The deal included the rights to SLIPKNOT's publishing and recording masters royalties. It reportedly covered the band's archival catalog but did not extend to future releases.

Since releasing its debut album in 1999, SLIPKNOT has captured a Grammy Award alongside 11 nominations, scored a number of platinum and gold album certifications around the world, and logged billions of global streams and video views to date. Rolling Stone cited the seminal platinum-selling 2001 album "Iowa" among "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time," while The Ringer attested, "They're the most important heavy band of their era."

"The End, So Far", landed at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart and at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, marking their sixth Top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200. A new album from SLIPKNOT is a global event, and "The End, So Far" continued the band's global chart rise, with No. 1 debuts in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and Mexico, as well as Top 3 debuts in Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Japan, and Belgium. SLIPKNOT's previous album, 2019's "We Are Not Your Kind", marked SLIPKNOT's third consecutive No. 1 on the Billboard 200, along with No. 1 debuts in the official album charts of twelve countries around the world, including the U.K., Australia, Canada and Mexico, with Top 5 debuts in an additional twelve countries. including Germany, France and Sweden.

SLIPKNOT's most recent live performance was at Inkcarceration, a music and tattoo festival in Ohio, in July 2025.

Photo by Jonathan Weiner