Slipknot's 4th Studio Album Review

Slipknot will be returning in 2008 with a new studio album. It will be the band's first studio release since 2004's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), making it their 4th studio album as well as the first musical output from the band since Corey Taylor and Jim Root's mainstream success with Stone Sour, Joey Jordison's stint with KoЯn and Ministry, and Shawn Crahan's side project Dirty Little Rabbits.

Preparation for the album has been noted to have started in October 2007. Recording was due to begin in January 2008, but was pushed back to February. They are aiming for a Summer release preceded by a possible live tour.

Recently Slipknot released a statement, proclaiming fans should not believe everything they read, concerning touring and recording.

For this release, the band has displayed interest in making it their heaviest album to date. They plan to include an expansion on the thrash metal riffing that was displayed on Volume 3, as well as more guitar solos. However, they also want to make it their most experimental record, and will be including more acoustic guitars and melodic vocals. During an interview in the February 2008 edition of Revolver, percussionist Crahan expressed a willingness for him and fellow percussionist Chris Fehn to experiment with hi-hats and cymbals which has been absent in the additional percussion in any previous work.

"Oh, I’ve got an absolute ton of stuff, man, I got three notebooks of ideas from the past year and a half alone. It’s so great, I think we’re gonna do something really different with this album. Different, but brutal."

— Corey Taylor,

"It's going to be heavy as fuck! It's going to be heavier than 'Vol. 3...' but just as weird and as experimental. We have a whole bunch of song titles, but nothing I wanna say right now."

— Joey Jordison,

It was also rumoured that, due to the member's being unmasked in their side projects, that Slipknot was going to be recording and touring this album unmasked. However, these rumours have been dismissed by many band members, percussionist Shawn Crahan addressed this issue during an interview on The Sauce when discussing the release of their 2006 DVD release Voliminal: Inside the Nine. Bassist Paul Gray confirmed during an interview that the band will be returning with a new image, regarding the masks he stated; "it'll still be Slipknot but we're gonna upgrade, step things up a little."

During an interview in 2006, Corey Taylor expressed a somewhat negative response to their experience of working with producer Rick Rubin on Slipknot's 2004 studio album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), this being said a lot of the members including Corey Taylor are very pleased with the album. During an interview in 2008, Gray said the band was deciding between Dave Fortman and Sean Beavan. It was later announced that the band are to head into the studio in February with producer Dave Fortman.