Slipknot's Jim Root: 'I'd never compare 'We Are Not Your Kind' to our previous albums'
It's a different beast
Last updated 16th Jun 2019
Slipknot guitarist Jim Root has told Kerrang! Radio that their upcoming sixth album ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ isn’t comparable to ‘Iowa’ or any of their other records.
Speaking to Kerrang! Radio’s Sophie K literally 15 minutes before Slipknot headlined Download Festival, the towering axeman explained that each Slipknot record is a completely different beast and it would be “contrived” for them to try and mimic their own previous output.
Singer Corey Taylor told Kerrang! last year that the upcoming album “is ‘Iowa’ levels of heavy” and makes ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’ “look like nobody’s business.”
Clarifying these comments, Corey tweeted last month: “New album has Iowa moments. Also has Vol. 3 moments. But it overwhelmingly has WANYK moments. Everyone’s a critic, but I hope this clears up any misconceptions.”
Asked by Sophie K if there are any parallels to ‘Iowa’, Jim said: “I would never in a million years compare anything we’ve done to anything we’ve previously done. I don’t believe in it and I think it’s bad because… you could say ‘we’re going to write the heaviest album of all time’ or ‘we’re going to write an album that sounds like Iowa’.
“Even if we set out to try to do so, it would never compare - we’re not those people anymore, we’re not that band anymore. That was a place and time (and) a snapshot of who we were at the time and to try and recreate that would be contrived and our fans would see right through it.
“And even if it was a great, really heavy, aggressive organic record like that, the comparison wouldn’t match up. I like to look at everything as an evolution and if I’d compare anything it wouldn’t be the songs themselves it might be the (recording) process itself.”
He continued: “Sonically it’s going to be different… you’re never going to match something you’ve done before. It’s hard to chase a vibe and catch a vibe. That’s why I don’t necessarily enjoy it when bands cover other songs – you’ll never recreate what has been done. Especially if it’s something legendary and classic.”
You can watch the full interview with Jim Root below where he also opens up about his inspiration for writing, why he doesn’t read comments on social media, how he continues to evolve as a musician and why he sometimes goes out of his way for his beloved maggots.
Saturday at Download Festival 2019 in photos: