STONE SOUR's COREY TAYLOR: 'If We're Going To Be The Last Rock Band Standing, So Be It'

STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor has lashed out against his contemporaries for not embracing the fact they are rock bands, calling it "pretentious horseshit."

Taylor's comment stems from KISS bassist Gene Simmons's infamous 2014 quote that rock music is finally dead as the result of file sharing and lack of support from record labels who would usually help get young bands off the ground.

In a recent interview with Rock Sverige 's radio show "The Enemy", Taylor and STONE SOUR guitarist Josh Rand were asked why they opted to record their new studio album, "Hydrograd", live in the studio.

"Honestly, we started out doing it that way," said Corey. "We did the first [self-titled] album that way. But honestly, it was because of time constraints in a weird way. It was something that maybe we wanted subconsciously to get back to because there's such a great energy to it and a great vibe. Obviously, you capture that excitement in a live environment. And, it triggers different little pieces of natural ear candy. It saves you time in trying to recreate that in different menus. Yeah, I'm glad we went back to that."

"We were trying to capture that moment," added Josh. "I can't really picture us not recording like that moving forward. We're a good enough band to be able to do it. So why would we want to make it the other way, which, in my opinion, makes stuff sound sterile."

Taylor was then asked how he felt about the ongoing sentiment that rock music is "dead":

"I'd say that people don't know what the fuck they're talking about," said Corey. "Again, I'm an asshole. I think it's only dead if you walk away from it. They've been saying that for 40 years now, since the mid-'70s: 'Disco killed rock!' 'Did it? Are you fucking sure about that?' We live in a day and age where a lot of rock artists are turning their back on the term. They'd rather be called something else, which I think is such pretentious horseshit. They treat rock like it's a dirty word. Well, you just turned off half of your fans who consider themselves rock fans. We never tried to be anything other than that. We've always prided ourselves on being a hard rock band who can play anything. It doesn't mean that we just play hard rock, but it also doesn't mean that we just play all these other quirky things. We have a core noise that we love to give to our fans. If we're going to be the last rock band standing, so be it. But we'll never turn our back on the term, the genre, the music, because that's a great way to make yourself look like a fucking douchebag. And god forbid, I would hate to look stupid."

"Hydrograd" was released on June 30 via Roadrunner Records. The disc was recorded at Sphere Studios in North Hollywood, California with producer Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX and STEEL PANTHER. The band tracked the album live in the studio, cutting a total of 18 songs from which 15 made the CD.