SLIPKNOT's COREY TAYLOR Talks New Masks: 'This Band Evolves With Every Album'

DJ Metallic of Metal Mania Radio recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor. You can now listen to the chat below.

Speaking the changes in the SLIPKNOT bandmembers' masks, Corey said: "With every album, some of us have evolved our masks more dramatically than others, but there's always a difference, they've always changed a little bit, and this album is no exception. I mean, I think mine and Clown's and Sid's have changed the most, because it's evolution."

He continued: "This band evolves with every album, and it just makes sense that our masks [would as well], because we're not the same people. It's not something that we sit down and we talk about as a group, we just kind of do it. As unified as we all are, the mask is really something that we trust each other to do individually and we trust them to do the right representation."

Taylor added: "The idea for mine really came from what I wanted to reflect with this: the mask behind the mask that sits on the human, basically. So, for me, it made sense to make it two pieces, and you can peel one off and there's still a mask there. To me, it represents the layers of the soul and how we deal with things like loss and regret and guilt and anger and sadness — like, the deepest sadness. So you put a mask on over the mask, and, to me, that was the physical representation of that.

"The reason that we're having the bass player and the drummer have not identical masks, but fairly similar, is because they're not officially in the band yet. You earn your spot in this band. And I know I've caught a lot of flak for saying that, but that's the way it is. Right now they're playing with us. They're not a part of the band yet; they're playing with us. But we'll just see what happens.

"In this band we've earned every drop of what we have, and that's the way it should be. So for the bass player and the drummer, they earn their spot in this band. And when the time comes and we do another album, they're still with us and they're hanging in there and they're doing really well, we'll let them do their own thing. But for now, it's more important to show them that if you earn your spot, you can get to that level, and that's why we did it."

SLIPKNOT's new album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", sold around 132,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on October 21 via Roadrunner.

".5: The Gray Chapter" caps a very turbulent period for the masked rockers in which they dealt with the death of Paul Gray and the firing of drummer Joey Jordison, both longtime members and songwriters.

Gray died in 2010 from a drug overdose, while Jordison was let go last December, just before SLIPKNOT began recording the new album.

Although the identities of their replacements have not been officially revealed, they are believed to be drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Alessandro "Vman" Venturella.