Slipknot’s latest studio album, “The End, So Far”, was released on Friday, Sept. 30 via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to 2019’s “We Are Not Your Kind” marks band’s final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998. At last month’s Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany, drummer Jay Weinberg talked about the new album.
“I joined the band and literally the next day we started working on ‘[.5:] The Gray Chapter…,’” Weinberg said. “We spent about a year making that album and about three years making the follow-up, ‘We Are Not Your Kind.’ This album was a lot different based on the circumstances that everybody was dealing with — the pandemic — and we all had to become very self-sufficient home recorders and engineers and stuff. And that lends itself to a lot of different experimental stuff that people have not heard on a Slipknot album before.”
Weinberg also commented on new elements that appear on “The End, So Far.” “So from my standpoint, there’s a lot on there of what makes Slipknot Slipknot, stuff that we’re not gonna get away from if we tried. But we’re very happy to celebrate that — dig deeper into the things that we know are trademark Slipknot but also challenge ourselves and do things that are experimentally creative that give Slipknot a completely new voice and then we can go deeper into that. It just gives us more tools to express ourselves. So the new album, it’s an interesting step forward.”
Weinberg also posted on Twitter about the new album. “As is tradition, I ventured out to find a copy of our new album at a local record store on its release day,” he wrote. ”In a way, it always feels like wishing a new collection of songs good luck as they make their way into the world to live their own lives…” ‘The End, So Far’ isn’t just ours anymore; it’s yours too. Thanks to anyone who’s spent time with this album. The human connection we all make with the music we love is the lifeblood of continued creativity. Your engagement and interest in this music means a lot to us. Thank you.”
Recently, Slipknot guitarist Jim Root detailed the challenges he had with the new record. “With my mindset being the way it was, I didn’t have a ton of creative input,” Root said.
“I felt kinda rushed trying to come up with ideas for this or that arrangement. We weren’t rehearsed as a band. We did not come in knowing the songs top to bottom, and that affected the record. That put us behind schedule. It had us, not really arguing and fighting with each other, but trying to figure it out, like, ‘What is the best way to approach this knowing that we are doing what we are doing?’ You can make a plan, and you can plan as much as you want, but the big clock above your head and the budget from the label, and all this stuff, the studio we were at and the scheduling of that, there are so many factors that were against us making this record that I am surprised we were able to finish it.”
Weinberg replaced drummer Joey Jordison after he exited the group in 2013. Jordison tragically passed away in his sleep in July of 2021 at the age of 46. Weinberg talked in 2016 with Music Radar about Jordison’s legacy with Slipknot. “Having a massive respect for the band’s music, having a massive respect for Joey Jordison as a person and as a player, I understood my role in needing to deliver what this band needs, and understanding what Joey brought to the table, and having this band’s legacy continue in the way that the Maggots, the fans of the band, respect, and the nine of us feeling proud of the music we’re creating,” Weinberg said.
“Of course, the history of the band feeds into what I think of the band, but when it came time to come up with new material, new songs, I didn’t think about Joey Jordison one bit,” he continued. “And I feel it would be disrespectful to do that, and the band wanted me to be completely myself. Because why would I want to be Joey Jordison, why would I try to mimic what he’s done?”
“Joey’s one of the greatest drummers we’ve ever had the privilege of witnessing. So as a fan of the band and someone who respects the people and the music, I didn’t want to come in and try to be a copycat. That’s not interesting to me, that’s not interesting to the band and it would be insulting to everyone involved, including the fans.”
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