In October of 2014, metal heavyweights Slipknot unleashed their fifth studio album, ‘.5 The Gray Chapter', four years after the death of Slipknot’s founding member and bass player, Paul Gray, and a mere nine months after the departure of core member and drummer, Joey Jordison.
But according to Slipknot’s vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root, while '.5 The Gray Chapter' magnified the deeply-lugubrious grieving process each band member had faced, the record united the band in a way no one could’ve anticipated. “There were some intense days in the studio,” Taylor recalls of the recording process. “There were times I was so in the moment I was either breaking down or throwing up, and a lot of times doing both at the same time. There was something intuitively different about this album,” he articulates.
“Not only because of what we’d gone through, but because of the circumstances with which we were trying to make this album. It was very important that I tear the lid off everything and just let it go. I hadn’t done that in a long time – you try to, and sometimes you get close and sometimes you don’t – but the story we were telling was so personal and so intense that you couldn’t half-arse it. For us it was about ripping the lid off and screaming bloody murder.”
The past five years have been one of the most challenging times in Slipknot’s long history. On May 24, 2010, Paul Gray was found dead in his room at the TownePlace Suites Hotel in his hometown of Iowa. In the 911-phone call, hotel staff detailed the scene in which they discovered Gray; hunched over in the corner of the room, his hands and feet purple. A syringe was reportedly located next to his bed, while an assortment of pills was littered throughout the room. Toxicology reports later indicated that Gray had overdosed on a lethal cocktail of morphine and fentanyl. Then, in December 2013, Slipknot’s drummer Joey Jordison, controversially departed the band.
While the reasons for Jordison’s departure are unclear (the band remain tight-lipped about it), one thing’s for certain; Jordison didn’t quit the band on his own will. Taking to Facebook on January 2, 2014 Jordison announced: “I want to make it very clear that I did not quit Slipknot... This news has shocked and blindsided me as much as it has all of you.” According to Root, the impetus to commence writing material for the record was borne from impatience with delays in getting the album started, and once the decision was made that Jordison would no longer be part of Slipknot, he and Clown started writing new material. “We fucking waited way too long to start this album, and it just kept getting pushed back,” Root explains.
“I was having conversations with Clown and Joey about starting the writing process – we were going to start in January. But when events unfolded the way they unfolded and we’d come to the conclusion that Joey wasn’t going to be with us anymore, it became apparent to me that I just needed to sit my fucking arse down, plant my head in my computer with a guitar in my lap and go to work. It was very obvious to me that it was time for Slipknot to start.” For Taylor, the process of writing and recording the album was a deeply therapeutic experience, signifying a step forward in his personal grieving process, and an evolution in the band’s sound and interpersonal dynamics. His lyrics and performance for '.5 The Gray Chapter' were cathartically crafted and executed, embracing the residues of his heightened emotional turmoil and transforming them into art.
He says the overall experience saw the band unite in their shared grief and evolve as a cohesive, and stronger, collective. “When we started talking about everything we had been going through for the last four years and how we were all dealing with the loss of Paul, we slowly realised we were all on the same wavelength as far as what we had gone through. That sense of loss, that deep depression, missing him and missing what he meant to this band, the guilt that comes along with it.”
Slipknot headline Soundwave 2015.
Written by Cara Williams
SOUNDWAVE 2015 DATES
Sat 21 Feb & Sun 22 Feb - Bonython Park (Adelaide)Sat 21 Feb & Sun 22 Feb - Melbourne Showgrounds
Sat 28 Feb & Sun 1 Mar - Brisbane Showgrounds
Sat 28 Feb & Sun 1 Mar - Olympic Park (Sydney)
