SLIPKNOT will release a new single, “The Chapeltown Rag”, on Friday, November 5. The track was produced by Joe Baressi, who has previously worked with AVENGED SEVENFOLD, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and CHEVELLE, among many others.
SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor described the song to Knotfest.com as “a punisher,” saying it documents what happens when the distortions of mass media circulate within the echo chambers of social media.
“It’s classic SLIPKNOT,” said Corey about the track, which is inspired by a Netflix documentary he watched about the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer who murdered multiple women in the West Yorkshire, United Kingdom suburb Chapeltown in the late 1970s. “And it’s frenetic. But lyrically, it’s coming from a point of talking about the various manipulations that can happen when social media meets media itself. And the different ways that these manipulations can try to pull us in different directions, in the fact that we’re all becoming addicts to it, which is very, very dangerous.”
According to Knotfest.com writer Dan Franklin, “The Chapeltown Rag” chorus sees Corey experimenting with vocal approaches he had never taken before.
“I wasn’t even sure if that part was going to be the chorus, to be honest,” Corey said. “But I just love the way that the chord progression lent itself this weird, chromatic, minor vibe to it, which I had never really done before. I played with it on ‘Vermilion’ years ago, but I had never really given it a little more aggression. The harmony that I created for it was just so fucking weird as well that it just gives it that slight dissonant vibe, but it’s also very, very melodic and hummable. Writing and pulling yourself out of trying to keep it in some sort of structure allows you to just fucking rip the scab off and let the wound be what it is. Then obviously, the big breakdown at the end where it just fucking goes off the rails is is so heavy, dude.”
SLIPKNOT‘s last album, “We Are Not Your Kind”, was released in August 2019, and Taylor recently confirmed that new music would be arriving soon. Speaking to SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” in late September, Taylor stated about the band’s next LP: “It’s pretty much done. I’d say it’s probably about 80 percent done. We’re finishing up some music [and] I’ve got a couple more songs to sing. However, I will say this: don’t be surprised if in the next month or so you hear something new.”
Taylor also offered a hint as to what the album’s lead single might sound like, saying it has “a ‘let’s-bludgeon-everybody-and-remind-them-why-we’re-still-SLIPKNOT‘ kind of vibe.”
“We Are Not Your Kind” sold 118,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Furthermore, the album made an impact worldwide with No. 1 debuts in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal and Finland, as well as Top 5 debuts in Germany, France, Norway, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and New Zealand.
SLIPKNOT is currently headlining the “Knotfest Roadshow” tour, featuring support from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, FEVER 333 and CODE ORANGE. The 29-date run, produced by Live Nation, kicked off following the band’s Knotfest Iowa hometown show in Des Moines on September 25, and will wrap up at Knotfest Los Angeles on November 5 at Banc Of California Stadium.
