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Interview
by SashaS
22-2-2002
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| Nine-headed Slipknot |
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Metal magnus
Slipknot, the mostest Metal band, return to disturb once again, after the American tragedy
It’s been a long time since Slipknot were last over the Big Pond and the current shows are in lieu of the November tour postponed in the wake of the New York and Washington terrorist-attacks. This Des Moines band has a reputation of being on the extreme side, as intense and aggressive as looking the part, they are nine masked ambassadors of apocalyptic sounds going for the kill with their ‘satanic’ stage set.
Why did we have then to wait so long to hear the band’s third album, ‘Iowa’, in concert, with the exception of a pre-release selection at the last year’s OzzFest date at Milton Keynes, in support of Black Sabbath. But then, this is mixing characters with people-behind-masks who are wondering around the London Docklands Arena’s backstage area several hours before the Saturday show: drummer Joey Jordison is a short-fellow, a tad smaller than the frontman, Corey Taylor, even. The tallest of them all is guitarist Jim Root whom we get talking with.
Several months since ‘Iowa’ filled our ears originally, we find the 6’6” guitarist still getting the buzz out of, what he calls at one point, “their second album.” What about ‘Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat.’?!
“No, I don’t count that one,” Root talks in a slo-mo mode, “it was something that we issued ourselves and it is not really important. There is a connection between the two albums, a continuation, that has nothing to do with that issue.”
Terminal combustion
Interviews are obviously conducted sans-masques and the members look rather, erm, ordinary. Their assortment of images make them appear very dangerous and disturbing in an entertaining way but, to their chagrin, it’s become the focus of the band although it was donned to have the opposite impact. And, the get-ups are far from comfortable.
“I can deal with the boiler suits,” Root admits, “but it’s the masks that kill all of us. It is hot, you can’t wipe the sweat off, at times you can’t see from it getting into your eyes, and there are big snots when we take them off. It’s not a pretty picture when we come offstage and take our masks off. People keep on asking us whether we’ll ever take the masks off and no-one can say for sure. It might happen, it might not, but you should never say never.”
On this tour members had cameras attached to their masks and Root even had one on top of his guitar neck.
“We are making our DVD,” he explains with a shrug, “and it’s nothing new really, but it is Slipknot. It is the whole story, backstage, onstage, offstage… It is about what it means to be a Slipknot, the look behind without mask actually coming off. It’s fun for us making it and we hope it will be for the maggots” (their fans).
Internal projections
Perhaps they caught the movie-bug at shooting the remake of the 1975 classic sci-fi flick, ‘Rollerball’. Directed by John McTiernan (‘Die Hard’, ‘Last Action Hero’), it features the band performing in a scene during one roller-derby. (The film’s premise is a storyline of an ultra-violent tribal/ sporting duelling settling arguments rather than wars in the future.)
“We were in the film for good 15 seconds,” Root sounds amazed, “which is much longer than I expected. But, we had to spend eight hours on the set and didn’t really enjoy repeatedly playing the song, over and over. I doubt it is something will be in a hurry to repeat very soon although it is a ‘pretty good movie’,” his fingers simultaneously finger quotation marks to underline sincerity.
Superego, Corey’s project Root’s involved in, was one CD that was supposed to come out during the band’s sabbatical, as well as Jordison’s Rejects, but all got shelved to concentrate on the band’s activity.
“As soon as we get some time off,” Root raises level of enthusiasm, “we’ll be finishing off Superego and issuing it. It’s more basic rock, it is heavy but more melodic, Corey is not screaming as much but singing… With Slipknot we get the heaviest out and I can go and explore different side of my character.”
Tour dates:
14 February – SECC, Glasgow
15 February – ENA, Manchester
16 February – Docklands Arena, London
18 February – Centre, Brighton
19 February – Arena, Cardiff
20 February – NEC, Birmingham
SashaS
22-2-2002
Slipknot’s album ‘Iowa’ is out now on Roadrunner
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