Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor reflects on the concept of ‘genre is dead’.
Following the release of CMFT Must Be Stopped and Black Eyes Blue from his upcoming debut solo record, Corey Taylor has spoken to Kerrang! about the many musical influences on his new album – if you couldn't already guess from the totally different sound of his two lead singles.
While the Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman tackles a pretty broad range of genres on his 13-track effort, Corey notes that the way in which the songs were recorded in the studio – with “99 per cent” of what you’ll hear captured live – gives CMFT a properly cohesive feel.
“Just by throwing off all of the normal production tricks that kind of plague 98 per cent of the music that’s out there that’s called ‘rock’ or ‘metal’ or ‘punk’, we were really able to capture and create something very unique; because it doesn’t sound like anything else, and you can really feel that right out of the gate,” he explains.
Read this: Freaks unleashed: The story behind Slipknot's debut album
“And the spirit’s there, too. So maybe it’s just because of the spirit wanting to get in there and just do its thing, maybe that’s one of the reasons why it just feels like that. All of those things were recorded with the exact same instruments and amps. We’d change guitars out here and there, but it was all done the same way, and built from that foundation. And hopefully that’s almost like a subliminal nod to the fact that all of these genres can live together if they’re done right.”
The musician adds that it wasn't necessarily important to have a totally unified sound in the ‘genre is dead’ world in which we live, noting that Slipknot were one of the first heavy bands to attempt to meld a broad mixture of different genres into their music in the first place.
“I feel like Slipknot was one of the first bands to really encourage that whole movement, you know?” he says. “Everybody try to nail us down into the nu-metal thing just because of the year that we came out, and the fact that we used hip-hop elements, but there was so much more hardcore punk on there, and grindcore, and thrash… I mean, we were really probably the first band to take all of those different genres and elements and stick them in a fucking trash compactor and grind them up, and kind of bend them to our will. I mean, there’s even fucking sick goth-type vibes on the first two albums. I really feel like we were one of the progenitors of that movement.”
With regards to CMFT, he adds: “It’s not exactly an anti-‘genre is dead’ kind of vibe, but I wanted to remind people that: it’s okay, that’s fine that genre is dead, but rock is still fucking awesome, so get over yourselves.”
Corey Taylor is the star of Kerrang!’s very first digital cover story, which not only tells the story of CMFT, but also features audio snippets from the man himself, plus exclusive, stunning new photos, and a fan pack of downloadable images, mobile phone backgrounds and more!
CMFT is due out on October 2 via Roadrunner Records, and is available to pre-order right here. Check out Corey’s two new singles – CMFT Must Be Stopped and Black Eyes Blue – below:
