Slipknot tease 2019 release date for new album
It looks like the last few years have ushered in a sudden era of comeback performances and reunions. Now, heavy metal legends Slipknot sneakily added some serious firepower to the wave of recent comeback albums that have been quite the trend this year.
A new photo of percussionist Shawn "The Clown" Crahan and frontman Corey Taylor appeared on the band’s Twitter page over the weekend. The image bore a simple, yet cryptic caption and read “2019”, leading fans to speculate that they have begun working on a new release for next year.
The explosive heavy metal icons haven’t released an album since 2014’s '.5: The Gray Chapter', but have recently discussed plans to make a new record. Crahan said in 2017 that they were a year away from heading back into the studio.
It's interesting to see the teaser being floated on the band's Twitter page. Last month Taylor gave fans an update on new material during his interview with Billboard, saying that the new album will "absolutely arrive in 2019".
"The guys are writing tons of music and I've written lyrics to almost all of it," Taylor said in the interview. "We're going to start trying to put together demos here and there with the time off that I have and really try to get ahead of the curve as far as what happens next."
But in the same interview, he kinda backtracked on his own comment, saying, “I know that we’re gonna try and put an album out next year – however, that is all speculation. The best way to make God laugh is to announce your plans out loud. So I’m just going with the flow. The plan right now is next year but that is a huge plan because we still haven’t narrowed anything down, so we will definitely see what happens.”
Perhaps the band is further along than Taylor thought last month and the schedules are being formulated. Meanwhile, Crahan is set to make his solo debut in June at the Montebello Rock Festival.
Since it's safe to assume that he'll have to meet-and-greet the press during the performance, we could get to see some more solid news by then. Until then though, all we have to go by is one magic number - 2019!