Mask not what your country can do for you

In the warm glow of a beautiful summer afternoon, Corey Taylor seems a remarkably happy man.

Tired certainly, due to a punishing tour schedule, but certainly pleased that his band Slipknot have finally made it to Ireland. The last time they tried to play here there was, you may remember, a world of shit that eventually forced the cancellation of the gig. This time, however, not a squeak. Has it, I wonder, become easier for Slipknot to operate of late?
“For the most part”, he agrees. “We’re always going to be misunderstood and we don’t give a fuck. It’s just the fact that we don’t say anything about it encourages that myth but we’re just regular guys who happen to have a very extraordinary profession. I think a lot of the times the misconception of what we do and who we are gets ahead of ourselves. It just goes to show the fear that a lot of people can have from misunderstanding and ignorance”.
Would that be largely down to the fact that people now have a lot more to worry about than the antics of what is basically just another rock band?
“That’s a lot to do with it. The focus has been taken off what we’re about – whatever that is – and is on world affairs. If people hadn’t had that mind set to begin with they would have realised that we’re not here to slaughter goats, we’re not going to eat our shit. We’re just an amazing heavy metal group who gets into what we do and encourage people to have a good time and not hurt themselves. There are a lot worse people who are going to be coming to Ireland in the next 48 hours than Slipknot, all you got to is look at the tanks around the airport to realise that.
“Not in my wildest dreams could I write a fiction as real as this”, he continues. “People are being beheaded because of fundamentalist bullshit. It’s not even as cut and dried as us against them. For whatever reason, the politics of my country follow me around wherever I go. Depending on which city I’m in I could be in mortal danger. I don’t agree with the politics of my country but I rarely get the chance to let people know that. I love my country and I’d fight for it but I’d have to believe in what the fight was about. I have a lot of friends in Iraq right now and it scares the shit out of me that they could die for something they don’t even understand”.
We both agree that the most chilling images of all were that of the prisoner abuse by US troops.
“That was such a slap in the face for us. All the rhetoric that we put out there was overridden by the ignorance of a bunch of American hicks. It was fucking appalling”. He pauses. “I can’t put it into words. No wonder the world hates us, I hate us”.
Despite the fact that they’ve always been students of the darker side of human nature, Corey maintains that background events had little effect on the recording of new album Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses).
“There’s definitely still a desolate feel to it but at the same time there’s a lot more hope on this album. I had always tried to put that it in the lyrics but it had never really shone through before. On this album there was a light at the end of the tunnel”.
He’s not wrong. Vol 3 is a fine piece of work and certainly one that demonstrates that this is just more than a one trick pony – throwing acoustic instruments, strings, hip-hop, gentle harmonies and startling atmospherics into the equation. I tell Corey that, for the first time, I can see that there’s more to this band than funny costumes and making a racket. No offence, like.
“Honestly I’m the same way. If you had asked me a year ago if we would have made an album like this, I would have said ‘no way’”.
Most would point to the name of Rick Rubin on the credits as one of the reasons for the band’s musical coming of age, but not Corey.
“I hate to say it”, he says, shaking his head “but working with Rick was not what I thought it would be. He’s never there, he flies in for about ten seconds once a week and then he’s gone. That was very frustrating. In fact we made the album this way because he wasn’t there. A lot of people are quick to give him the credit but he was never there and the only reason he started coming was because I bitched that I wanted him there. I’d prefer that the credit went to the guys in the band rather than Rick.”

Vol 3: Subliminal Verses is out now on Roadrunner