Slipknot's Corey Taylor (file)
Photo: Jakubaszek/ Getty Images

A 29-year-old man died of a heart attack on Sunday night just after a Slipknot show in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the masked band's home state.

According to the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Daily Nonpareil, Cory Nickels collapsed on the concourse level of the Mid-America Center just after the show ended, at around 10:30 p.m. The EMS director for the venue, Rick Benson, said Nickels was not feeling well following the show and as rescue personnel attempted to assist him, he suffered cardiac arrest.

CPR was performed on Nickels, who was transported to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Council Bluffs police are still trying to determine where Nickels is from, and an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday to determine the cause of death. Friends told police that Nickels had a family history of heart problems.

Venue officials said nearly 30 people were treated for minor injuries at the show, most of them moshing related. The venue is the same one where police arrested two Slipknot fans in 2005, after the crowd rushed the doors of the building's main floor, attempted to ram the doors with tables and then pelted officers with objects when they attempted to stop the pushing.

A spokesperson for the band could not be reached for comment at press time.

• Slipknot

Young Jeezy's <i>The Recession</i>
Photo: Def Jam

There are some weeks where the race for Billboard's coveted peak position is a close one. Take last week's chart battle for instance: Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone narrowly beat out the Game's L.A.X. for the #1 spot, by a margin of fewer than 2,000 copies. Other weeks, there's a clear-cut winner, whose ascension to the top goes largely unchallenged.

This week's chart falls under the latter category. Rapper Young Jeezy's The Recession is slated to enter next week's albums chart at #1, with first-week sales clocked at close to 260,000 copies. Jeezy's nearest competitor? The reunited New Kids on the Block, whose new one, The Block, debuts at #2, marking the first time in 14 years that one of the band's studio efforts has entered the top 200. According to the latest Nielsen SoundScan sales totals, NKOTB's latest sold 95,000 copies, meaning Jeezy's run for #1 wasn't much of a race.

The Recession is Jeezy's second consecutive album to bow at #1, following 2006's The Inspiration, which opened on top with 352,000 sold. In 2005, his debut, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, entered the chart at #2, scanning 172,000 copies.

Slipknot may have spanked the Game on last week's chart, but this week, it's the Game who outsold the 'Knot. L.A.X. falls one spot to #3 on next week's chart, selling 89,000 copies during its second week in stores, while Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone plunges four chart positions to #5 with 75,000 sold. Wedged between those two LPs, we find Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus, which falls one place to #4 with a reported 79,000 in sales. Jonas Brothers' A Little Bit Longer slides two spots to #6, with 57,000 sold, followed at #7 by the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack, which sold another 56,000 units. Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III rounds things out at #10, having scanned another 47,000 copies.

Jeezy and NKOTB's latest offerings weren't the only newcomers to next week's chart. Two other releases debuted in the top 10: Underoath's Lost in the Sound of Separation opens at #8 with week-one sales of 56,000, and Chris Tomlin's Hello Love follows at #9 with 52,000 scans. A dozen other new releases impact next week's chart, including Diddy protégé Donnie Klang's Just a Rolling Stone, which enters at #19 with 22,000 sold.

Hollywood Undead's debut Swan Songs enters the chart at #22, on the strength of 21,000 scans, while actor Terrence Howard's debut LP, Shine Through It, bows at #31 with 14,000 sold. The soundtrack to Joss Whedon's Web miniseries "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" comes in at #39 with 12,000 copies sold. Meanwhile, Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II, the second studio album from Slim Thug's group Boss Hogg Outlawz, enters the chart at #48, with close to 10,000 sold.

• Game
• Slipknot
• New Kids on the Block
• Young Jeezy

Slipknot's <i>All Hope Is Gone</i> album cover
Photo: Roadrunner Records

Fewer than 2,000 maggots made all the difference. Masked Iowan metallers Slipknot had never debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, and needed their fans — affectionately dubbed "Maggots" — to hit their local record stores in force, if they were ever going to get All Hope Is Gone to the top. That's because West Coast rapper the Game released his latest, L.A.X., on the very same day, and with two consecutive #1 openings under his belt, he'd be a tough foe to best.

Earlier Wednesday (September 3), MTV News had reported that Game did in fact beat Slipknot to #1, based on sales figures released by Nielsen SoundScan. That sales information was incomplete, however, according to a representative for SoundScan, who added that the long holiday weekend caused delays in sales data. The spokesperson said that the company would be looking into why those erroneous numbers were posted on SoundScan's Web site.

In the end, it turns out that Slipknot will debut at #1 on next week's top 200. While it's the band's first chart-topping debut, All Hope Is Gone could not outsell Slipknot's previous outings. With just under 240,000 sold, it ranks third in first-week sales behind the band's 2001 effort, Iowa, which opened at #3 with 255,000 sold, and 2004's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), which entered at #2 with 243,000 scans.

The Game's latest enters the chart at #2, selling more than 238,000 copies; his previous efforts sold significantly better. His 2005 LP The Documentary entered the chart on top with 587,000 scans, while the 2006 follow-up, Doctor's Advocate, sold more than 358,000 units, to open at #1.

While the chaotic metal outfit and the hard-knocks MC were clearly the matchup of the week, theirs weren't the only new albums to make an impact on next week's chart. A total of 23 new releases crack the top 200, with two others debuting in the top 10. The Now That's What I Call Country compilation enters at #7 with 50,000 scans, and Solange Knowles' Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams bows at #9 with 46,000 sold.

Those new kids join a group of releases that are beginning to seem like old standards on the chart: Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus finished at #3 (with 89,000 sold), followed by the Jonas Brothers' A Little Bit Longer at #4 (80,000), the "Mamma Mia" soundtrack at #5 (78,000), Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III at #6 (54,000), Sugarland's Love on the Inside at #8 (47,000) and Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends at #10 (44,000).

Elsewhere on the chart, we find DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown opening at #18 after selling 24,000 copies and the Verve's Forth entering at #23 with 21,000 scans. Coming in at #63, with 9,000 sold, it's the Tropical Thunder compilation, which features tracks by Sean Paul, R. Kelly, Busta Rhymes, Beenie Man and more. Rapper V.I.C. 's Beast follows at #73, scanning nearly 7,000 units, while Motörhead's Motorizer trails at #82, with 6,000 first-week scans. Lastly, finishing out the week with 4,000 sold, Matthew Sweet's new album, Sunshine Lies, enters the chart at #162.

• Slipknot
• Game

Britney Spears in "Piece of Me"
Photo: Jive

Britney Spears made last year's MTV Video Music Awards a memorable one with her performance of "Gimme More" — albeit in ways she may not have intended. But on September 7, Spears will get a chance at VMA glory: Her "Piece of Me" video has been nominated for the coveted Video of the Year Moonman.

Thanks to votes from thousands of MTV viewers, Spears netted her third nomination of this year's VMAs (she's scored two others in the Best Female and Best Pop Video categories) on Friday (August 15), but she faces some stiff competition for the awards' most sought-after prize. The Jonas Brothers are also up for Video of the Year, for their "Burnin' Up" clip, along with Chris Brown's "Forever," the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up" and, in typical VMA fashion, a relative newcomer. The Ting Tings scored their first VMA nod for "Shut Up and Let Me Go."

This year's VMAs, hosted by British comic and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" co-star Russell Brand, will feature live performances from the Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne and Kid Rock. The big show will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. on September 7 from the legendary Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood.

Also on Friday, MTV revealed the nominees in the Best Rock Video category: Paramore scored a nod for their "CrushCrushCrush" clip, and they'll contend with the likes of Slipknot ("Psychosocial"), Linkin Park ("Shadow of the Day"), Foo Fighters ("The Pretender"), and Fall Out Boy ("Beat It").

(For all this year's nominees, check out VMA.MTV.com.)

It's a wrap! Now that the 2008 VMAs have come and gone, check out all the winners, the most surprising moments, the best red-carpet fashions and more at VMA.MTV.com.

• You're In Control Of This Year's VMAs

• Britney Spears
• Jonas Brothers
• Slipknot
• Fall Out Boy
• Paramore

Slipknot
Photo: Paul Brown

There's a little-known fact about Iowa metallers Slipknot and the menacing masks they don onstage — one that's sure to churn up some of that acid in your stomach. According to percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan, the band's members hardly ever clean their masks, no matter how much they sweat, spit, vomit or bleed in them. It's not that they never wash them, it's just that they've got this rule.

"The rule is: Sit in it," Crahan explained during a break from this summer's Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival. The bill also boasts the likes of Disturbed, Mastodon, DragonForce and Suicide Silence. "The philosophy was always to just sit in it."

Hygienic? Not by anyone's definition. True? You betcha. But as with every album cycle, the Slipknot lads have brand-new masks, ones that Crahan said "reflect [the band's] pain." So there's no need to clean them just yet. But by summer's end, those masks will wreak of all manner of bodily fluid, which could bring about some interesting on-tour dares.

"I remember, in the early days, when we had no money, we were in Europe on the first record cycle, and we were in Spain," Clown recalled. "I was in the bathroom with Shawn Economaki, the bass player from [Slipknot side project] Stone Sour, and I was washing my mask for the very first time — it hadn't been washed since I was 14 years old.

"I put the mask in the sink, and let hot water go over it, and the water turned brown," he continued. "I dared him to drink a Dixie cup full of it — and he did. I can't tell you how much piss and other things, dirt from rolling around on floors ... I mean, I can't even tell you what was in that water, bro. Now we're big rock stars and we have big dressing rooms and we have people who will come out and work on our masks and clean our clothes. We've come a long way, my friend."

They most certainly have. In fact, just the other night, it became more apparent than ever to Clown just how huge his band has become.

"We played L.A. the other night, and I thought, 'I remember being here on Ozzfest '99, playing at 11:30 a.m., swallowing dust on the second stage in front of 1,000 people, and here I am, 10 years later, playing underneath the shed, headlining, calling the shots, playing in front of 20,000,' and no one left until the end," Crahan said. "It's been a trip, man. We worked hard to have our legions of kids there. Imagine if I could get all those kids together in one place at one time ... imagine all the good we could do."

But where do the masks come from, and how are they made? According to Crahan, the first masks were all handmade, from the bandmembers' own respective designs. But now they have people to make the masks for them.

"The masks come out of our minds, and we get people that we feel have a mind-set like us, and they have the ability to sketch, and we approve the designs," he said. "The guy who helped make my mask is here with me, because, after a week on the road, he's got to check on usage. If you wear a mask for a week, it will start showing its weaknesses, so he's here to fix it. Basically, the process is, I have an idea for my mask, and I start talking to him. He sketches, we manipulate, he sketches, we manipulate, and you get to a point where you're happy with it. My particular mask is made out of real leather, with shoe thread — real stuff. I don't want any of it to [appear] human — there are no human elements to it. The mask is actually made of steel [covered with leather], so I can rip it off my head and use it as a weapon. It's not some plastic bullsh--. We keep manipulating it and manipulating it until we get what we want."

Of course, Slipknot are touring in support of their forthcoming album, All Hope Is Gone, which comes out August 25 and is, according to Crahan, "more musical, more melodic and more dynamic." For Clown, the experience of making the LP was both "the best recording experience and the worst" — the latter, chiefly because he'd brought several tracks to the table that the band didn't end up using.

"I was involved with a handful of other songs that I play drums on, but they didn't really make it. And that's not right or wrong, but every year we do a record, there's a mind-set," he said. "There's a song called 'Till We Die,' which [guitarist] Jim [Root] and I wrote together, and I play drums on it. That'll make the special edition [of the record], and I can't wait for all the Maggots to hear me play a drum set. I've worked hard the last five years to get back to what I started doing many decades before I started Slipknot, which was to play drums. I'm tired of being some big guy with a clown nose hitting a keg with a bat — I mastered that."

• Slipknot Show Off Their New Masks

• Slipknot

Slipknot
Photo: Paul Brown

For masked Iowan metallers Slipknot, this summer's inaugural Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival got off on the wrong foot — literally. In Seattle, during the band's first set of the tour, DJ Sid Wilson (a.k.a. #0) leapt from a riser stationed at the back of the stage and landed hard, breaking both his heels. While such injuries would sideline most rockers, it hasn't fazed Wilson one bit; he's vowed to take the stage each and every night of the tour and is employing a wheelchair as his primary means of transport.

But that's just the kind of band Slipknot are. Dedicated and intense, they simply don't quit — no matter what their bruises look like.

"[Sid] had to take his cast off last night, and I'm telling you, I couldn't even look at his feet," Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan told MTV News this week. "Both his feet were black and blue — and deep. The bruises go, like, 2 inches in. But he's up there every night, no problem. He's so out of his mind, he's got a big bruise on his face because he's not used to slamming his head in a wheelchair. So he's got a huge bruise on his face from smacking his head into his tables. It never ends. You think you're out of it, and then you're back in, on some other painful level."

While Slipknot's members have suffered innumerable injuries on the road — most of them self-inflicted — Clown said you've got to admire Wilson's work ethic. "He's in a wheelchair, so that's pretty much the most extreme injury we've been hit with," Crahan explained. "I've had to miss an entire tour because of an illness of a family member, and [guitarist] Jim [Root] broke his wrist one time. But it was always you either miss the show or you don't. Sid was like, 'I broke my feet, but I can't miss a show, so here I am, in this wheelchair.' The good thing is, he now knows he's not 25 anymore."

Other than Wilson's mishap, Clown said Rockstar Energy Mayhem has been an incredible experience. The fans, he said, are turning out in huge numbers, and the band's playing as though it never took five years off.

"Everything's going good — we're blowing all the carbon out of the motor and just hitting it, man," he said. "The war is still the war, and we've been doing this so long, it doesn't matter how many years we're off — we're just good at what we do, and it feels good when we're together."

Once this summer tour is a wrap, Clown said that Slipknot won't be returning to the States until early 2009, which means fans won't get to hear them play any new material — beyond "Psychosocial," the first single off of their forthcoming album All Hope Is Gone — until then.

"It's just too early to play the new stuff," Clown said. "And it's just so great to play a lot of these old songs. We're not the kind of band that'll say, 'Let's sacrifice all that old stuff to play new stuff.' We're kind of loving playing these songs off the first record, and it feels good — it's just where we're at."

While the band is rocking their Phoenix fans on Friday, their video for "Psychosocial," which was directed by Paul Brown (Korn, Marilyn Manson), will be making its worldwide debut on "FNMTV." Clown said he had come up with the treatment for the video not too long ago and thinks fans will appreciate the work the band has put into the clip.

"They're supposed to be called 'video treatments,' but I make them more like threats," Clown said. "I send out these real weird threats that make no sense, and people like Paul say, 'I feel you, but now I'm going to put in the practical things so we can get the money to do it.' Basically, the video is a metaphor for where we're at in our career."

Without giving away too much, Crahan said the clip, shot at Sound Farm studios in Jamaica, Iowa, where the guys tracked All Hope Is Gone, will feature performance footage shot near a pond in a lush field.

"More or less, we have these giant masks that we're wearing, called 'purgatory masks.' They're like giant death masks, and they represent ego," he said. "So the video is based on letting things like that go, and getting back to what we more or less do, which is rock out. With me, the idea was based around going to extremes. I wanted to get a phantom camera, which can shoot 1,000 frames per second; it's psychotic. Then I wanted to get a 35 mm hand crank, like it's Vietnam or some sh--. We have both worlds — we have the most extreme on both ends, with nothing in the middle. That's what the video is, and nobody does that. There's an art form behind it. The video's got live performance footage, with serious consideration of location, color and just art, man. It's pretty awesome."

But how does Clown feel about the video debuting on MTV?

"I don't know what to say," he confided. "Our goal has always been to infect. Infect, infect, infect, infect. And there's nothing cooler than seeing something so structured and so pronounced, and then watching something filtrate through it. You can put all your lights up and you can have your security and you can have your culture and you can do anything you want, but I was there when the Buggles threw on the first video ever. I saw it all: Duran Duran's 'Planet Earth,' all of it. The fact that I am going to unleash my own vision, and it will be here and there, and it will be penetrating that MTV world — that's what we set out to do: infect. If someone chooses to dress one way or think one way, it doesn't mean I'm not going to come in there and change their life forever. I look at [the video premiering on MTV] as an honor."

• Slipknot Show Off Their New Masks

• Slipknot

Opiate for the Masses
Photo: Century Media

If you listen very closely to Opiate for the Masses' latest LP, Manifesto, which dropped this week, you may hear some slight snoring.

That's because the album, which is the band's first in three years, was tracked in guitarist Jim Kaufman's home studio. Kaufman is a dog lover, and his two bulldogs were a constant presence in the studio during the recording sessions.

"You can probably hear them on several of the tracks on the record, because they sleep all the time and snore, and the microphones picked that up all the time," explained Opiate's newest member, Anna Kjellberg, who has played bass for Drain STH, Hanzel und Gretyl and, for one tour back in '06, Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen's Revolting Cocks. "They're a pretty big part of the album, actually."

But the canines would never have made the record if Kjellberg had not replaced Ryan Head last year. Opiate for the Masses — who are on the road with the reunited Filter through August 8, and will join Sevendust, Drowning Pool, and Nonpoint for the GrindCo Tour on August 10 — had actually been sitting on the effort for several months before it was decided they'd update the opus, with Kjellberg rerecording all the bass parts.

"It was kind of a weird procedure to get this album together," she said of the set, which features a cover of Portishead's "Wandering Star" ("We thought it was a really cool song," she said, "and I think we did make it our own, even though it's still true to the original in many ways"). "When I joined the band, they basically had a finished album, and they all, including me, felt that we needed to update it a bit and add some songs and take others away. We basically ripped up the mixes and started over with a second producer. So we wrote three songs together that we added onto the album, and I retracked the bass on all of the songs, so, really, there were two editions of the album.

"I think the record is more solid and more uniform than the previous album," the bassist continued. "It is a lot more straightforward and more cohesive. All of the songs fit together really well. The melodies are still there. Opiate always had very melodic songs. It's still heavy, and there's still lots of guitars, but you still have the choruses and all that."

Kjellberg said she's looking forward to working on the follow-up to Manifesto so she can be there from start to finish. "I am very much a songwriter, and I love to be involved in the whole songwriting process," she said. "I'm glad I got a chance to be as involved as I turned out [being] on this record, because I came into the band at such a late stage. We actually have a studio in the back lounge of our bus. We're not jumping on it yet, but when the time comes, and the inspiration comes, we can start tracking those ideas."

For Kjellberg, the Opiate experience has been drastically different from those she'd had with her previous bands, because this time around, she's playing side-by-side with her husband of five years, drummer Seven Antonopolous.

"When Opiate decided to change bass players, it was [frontman Ron Underwood] and [Kaufman] who suggested they should bring me in," she said. "Seven and I discussed it thoroughly: Was it a good idea or not, to be married and be in the same band and be on tour together? But it's actually working out really well. He's my best friend, and we're lucky to be able to do this together. It's easier than I think we both thought it would be. We talked so much about it, because we didn't want to risk our marriage, and we didn't want to be that annoying married couple in the band. It would be a nightmare for the other guys, to have a married couple bickering at each other all the time. But we don't. It works really well."

But the couple's wedding rings do little to dissuade third parties from making their moves. "We know where we are in this relationship, and we're both very aware, of course, that there will be guys hitting on me and there will be girls who will hit on Seven," she said. "That's part of the job. As long as we don't do anything, there's no reason to get jealous that other people find my husband attractive. I can't blame them."

While Kjellberg gets her fair share of male groupies, she said they're not nearly as upfront as their female counterparts. "These girls come to a show with a purpose," she said. "They know which bandmember they want, and they go for it. They dress not-so-much and go for it, and they get it. Girls come more prepared for that. Guys are much more polite. They'll bring you gifts, flowers ... it's a different approach. They don't come up and suggest that you go to the back lounge with them — girls will. Guys send love letters, and they're more creepy about it, actually. I think that's because, for a guy, it's more intimidating to approach a girl who can play an instrument, goes out on tour, and does the things they wish they could do."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Sad news to report this week, as Paul Stitt, the former lead singer for 1990s metallers Angellic Rage, was shot to death during a liquor-store holdup in Las Vegas on July 8. Stitt was working as a clerk in the store when two men, wearing baseball caps, entered the business, guns drawn. Police believe the gun may have fired accidentally, striking Stitt in the head. Police are now reviewing surveillance footage of the murder and hope the tape will help lead them to the two gunmen. ... Opeth will be touring this fall, with High on Fire, Baroness and Nachtmystium along for the ride. That tour is set to commence September 16 in Buffalo, New York, and runs through October 26 in Baltimore. ...

Calling all Maggots! On July 18, MTV will be filming a new episode of "FNMTV," during which Slipknot's video for "Psychosocial" will make its world premiere. Interested in being part of the taping? Well, if you live in or around the L.A. area, head on over to 1Iota.com and sign up for free tickets. Make sure to enter "Slipknot" in the comments box when making your ticket request. ...

Did Lemmy Kilmister break a German law by wearing a Nazi cap? Seems there's an investigation into a picture of the Motörhead frontman that appeared in a German newspaper before the band's July 5 performance at "Wacken Rocks Seaside." In Germany, "anti-constitutional propaganda" is illegal. ... A September 30 release date has been set for Trivium's forthcoming album, Shogun. Look for the effort to feature 11 tracks, including "Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis," "Into the Mouth of Hell We March" and "Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven." Whatever. ...

Clutch will be teaming up with the Sword for a spate of gigs this fall. The first has been booked for September 19 in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and the trek is expected to wrap October 9 in Sacramento, California.

• Opiate for the Masses
• Opeth
• Slipknot
• Portishead
• Filter

Classic Slipknot, before the mask update
Photo: Roadrunner Records

After weeks of online buildup, the members of Iowan metal outfit Slipknot revealed their new onstage looks on Tuesday (July 1), just in time for the launch of the inaugural run of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival, which they'll be co-headlining with Disturbed beginning July 9 in Seattle.

The images of the new masks are available exclusively at Spinner.com, as a way to promote the band's long-awaited fourth LP, All Hope Is Gone, slated for an August 26 release.

Some of Slipknot's new masks are markedly different from their previous versions, while others have changed only a little. A press release claims that "the latest masks are creepier and more intricate than ever," which they certainly seem to be.

Turntablist Sid Wilson's new look resembles Dr. Victor von Doom from the "Fantastic Four" flick. Drummer Joey Jordison's will perhaps stir up the most controversy: While his mask's face hasn't been altered too much, it now features a black crown of thorns, with black blood trickling down the forehead and Frankenstein-esque stitches.

Bassist Paul Gray's new look might remind one of billionaire Mason Verger, as portrayed by Gary Oldman in 2001's "Hannibal," only more metallic. The masks worn by percussionist Chris Fehn, keyboardist Craig Jones and guitarist Mick Thomson haven't changed much at all. Guitarist Jim Root's mask looks almost porcelain, similar to the mask worn by V in "V for Vendetta," though this one is unsmiling and ultra-creepy. Shawn "Clown" Crahan's mask features intricate leather detailing and some new zippers. It resembles the mask worn by the Gimp in "Pulp Fiction" — think S&M meets the circus.

But none of the masks has changed quite as much as frontman Corey Taylor's. His looks as though it were made of dried, human flesh — like Leatherface, if only he used moisturizer.

Since the band's inception, members have worn masks (along with matching jumpsuits) of their own creation, which they have changed slightly with each record release. It's widely known that the band rarely cleans the masks after performances, despite claims by its members that they sweat, bleed and vomit in them during their live sets.

• Slipknot

Gojira
Photo: Prosthetic Records

If you're not exactly sure how to pronounce "Gojira," don't fret — neither does Joe Duplantier, who fronts the French death-metal outfit of the same name.

"I don't know, myself, how to pronounce it correctly," he confessed with a slightly embarrassed chuckle to Metal File last week, in between tracking vocals for the band's upcoming fourth LP, The Way of All Flesh, which is slated for a Stateside release October 14. "In France, people say Go-gee-rah, and some say Ga-jeer-uh, but I think the right way is the Japanese way: Go-jeer-ah. That's the one I always go with."

You say to-may-toe, I say to-mah-toe — let's call the whole darned thing off. After all, Gojira have a lot going on these days. In addition to self-producing The Way of All Flesh ("We have many loans," Duplantier said), their much-anticipated follow-up to 2005's From Mars to Sirius, the guys are planning out their fall tour plans, working on ideas for album number five, and working on their broken English. Duplantier said he'd like to move to New York — his "favorite place on Earth" — for a year "to improve my English."

But first, let's talk about the new record. According to Duplantier, Flesh is a conceptual work, focusing on the morbid topic of death.

"That's the theme — it's about death itself," he explained. "It's also about the immortality of the soul. That's the main subject for us. Since we started to play and release albums, we've always talked about the same thing: the soul.

"This album's got a more dramatic feel to it, and some of the lyrics are almost cynical," continued Duplantier, who worked with the Cavalera Conspiracy on their latest LP. "Usually, with my lyrics, I'm always positive. But on this album, I'm so pissed off with the situation on Earth right now, how we're abusing so much, and we take everything that we can take from the ocean, and we kill off endangered species. So in some of the songs, it's almost like a requiem for the Earth. This record is a lot darker — like, a lot darker, I would say. The music is darker and more violent."

At times, he said, the mostly midtempo material — including the tracks "The Art of Dying," "Esoteric Surgery" and "Yama's Messengers" — bears an almost old-school thrash sound, like Slayer's earliest material, while other tracks incorporate elements of hardcore. When the album drops (or leaks — whichever comes first), fans will discover that some tracks boast unusual atmospherics, while others are punctuated by their tortured melodies, all backed by pig-on-fire vocals, compliments of Duplantier. Machine Head's Logan Mader will be mixing the effort.

"I think that, probably, some people will be disappointed by some things we did on this album, but there is also a very logical evolution of our music since From Mars to Sirius," Duplantier said. "It's pretty much what we want to hear from a band, and that's been our goal since the beginning — to play music we could enjoy. And for the first time, we are happy with the sound we've achieved by being our own producers for all these years. We've never had an external person telling us what to do, and for the first time, we're very happy with the sound, because it's just so powerful"

Duplantier also promises a surprise cameo on the effort by someone he claims will be well-known to the band's U.S. fans. He wouldn't discuss the collaboration any further, "because I'm not allowed to. You'll just have to wait."

And even though the band is still recording The Way of All Flesh, the singer said he's already looking to the future. "Some of the songs we wrote didn't fit with the rest of this album, so we're holding them over for later," he said. "And we have tons of riffs. ... The fifth album's already on our minds."

While Gojira have no immediate U.S. touring plans, Duplantier said they will be crossing the pond in October for an American trek. They're also hoping to acquire the rights to the 1926 Italian silent film "Maciste all'Inferno," he said.

"In 2003, we were invited to play this big festival in the south of France, but they wanted us to compose an hour and a half of material to play live, during the projection of this movie," he said. "We watched the movie for a week and worked on brand-new music, just for this movie. Now, we want to put it on a record or release it as a DVD with the movie. We want to do it now. We want to record it, but we have to promote the new album for the next two years."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Right now, you can head over to the Roadrunner Records Web site and download the title track from All Hope Is Gone, Slipknot's forthcoming LP, for free. And starting July 1, you'll be able to hear more material from the disc, which won't be in stores until sometime later this summer, when the record's first single, "Psychosocial," will be added to iTunes and other digital-download retailers. ...

Last week's column promised that this week, we'd be brining you a feature on Judas Priest and their new album, Nostradamus. Well, that story actually popped up on MTV News' site on Thursday. You can check it out here. ...

According to guitarist Kerry King, Slayer's upcoming album could be out before the year's up. In an interview with writer Joel McIver, excerpts from which can be found here, King said, "We're supposed to have [an album] ready at the end of the year. There's been talk of all kinds of odd things, because the record industry changes every day. We've talked about maybe putting out a couple of songs from an upcoming record through iTunes, so we can play something new on the Unholy Alliance III tour. You know, that's not so far outside the realm of possibility. As far as how much we're gonna get done by the end of the year? I have no idea." Hey, fellas — please, just take your time with this one. ...

The Deftones are hard at work on their next album, which one source close to the band told Metal File "sounds nothing like what they've done in the past." Eros, which could be out before 2008 expires, will, according to bassist Chi Cheng, be "heavy as f--- with a sh--load of groove. ... I always say this sh--, but I truly believe this album to be well worth the wait and appreciate all your support and kind loyalty." ...

Unearth have begun work on the follow-up to 2006's III: In the Eyes of Fire. The yet-untitled effort is being eyed for an October release. Produced by Killswitch Engage's Adam Dutkiewicz, the record, according to a press release, will feature the band's "most dynamic material to date." ...

Walls of Jericho, 36 Crazyfists, It Dies Today, Sea of Treachery and Flatline will be hitting the road together in August for a string of live gigs. That trek commences August 20 in Syracuse, New York, and dates are booked through August 31 in beautiful Mokena, Illinois. ...

Iced Earth's forthcoming album, The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Part II), has been scheduled for a September 9 release. Look for it to include the tracks "The Sacred Flames," "Crown of the Fallen" and "I Walk Alone." ...

Darkane's forthcoming CD, Demonic Art, is currently in the mixing phase. While no release date has been etched in stone yet, it's looking like the disc will contain 11 tracks, including "Variations of an Eye Crush," "The Killing of I" and "Wrath Connection." ...

Cattle Decapitation plan to return to the studio in August with producer Billy Anderson to finish tracking their next LP, which has yet to be christened. Expect the disc to feature more macabre material from these kings of deathgrind, including "Tooth Enamel & Concrete," "We Are Horrible People" and "The Body Farm."

• Deftones
• Slipknot
• Gojira

Slipknot's M. Shawn Crahan
Photo: Neil Zlowzower

This summer, Des Moines, Iowa's own Slipknot — along with Disturbed, Mastodon, DragonForce, Machine Head, the Red Chord, Suicide Silence and a handful of others — will be taking part in the inaugural run of Warped Tour mastermind Kevin Lyman's Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival (otherwise known as the tour that effectively immobilized Sharon Osbourne's long-running Ozzfest).

But Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan doesn't care what you call Lyman's latest brainchild, so long as you understand that it's not a festival at all — it's a Slipknot tour, plain and simple.

"It's a bunch of bands opening for Slipknot," Crahan told Metal File last week, during a brief break from the studio, where the band is working on its fourth, still-untitled LP, which should arrive in stores by summer's end. "We're headlining, as it should be. Sorry — it's a Slipknot show, kids. We've been gone for two years, and you've all had the chance to do what you're going to do. But now we're back; step in line. That's what's up. We're the DNA that keeps whatever cell this is moving. Period.

"With me, I've been out with a lot of bands, and I don't care," he continued. "We're back, and it just happens to be this thing called the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival. That's cool. But we didn't want them, they wanted us. Everyone wants our f---ing money and our kids. We're playing a show, and a bunch of great bands are playing too. But we're back, so get out of our way. Call it what you will, but we're headlining. It's our show, and we're here to kill you."

And he's not kidding. Crahan said he's keyed up for Slipknot's return to the stage, following two years of hibernation, and promises that this summer, the boys will preview some of the new material they've been working on since early February.

"We're going to cast some magical spells, and you're going to get more than you can choke on," he said. "Slipknot is a philosophy, a way of life. We're a great band, and if you don't know that, I don't know what you know. We've been doing it longer than most bands can, and no one has done it harder than us."

According to Crahan, Slipknot brought an abundance of songs into the studio and is nearing the completion of the effort, under the direction of producer Dave Fortman (Mudvayne, Superjoint Ritual). And while he wouldn't go into detail about the LP (frontman Corey Taylor said in a recent interview with Billboard that the album would "rip your face off"), he scoffed at the suggestion that it's the band's heaviest offering to date.

"I'm not that guy who's going to tell you it's harder," he said. "Harder, to me, doesn't mean anything. I could give a sh-- about hard. Hard means nothing to the Clown. Slipknot is a phenomenon, it's an enigma, and the enigma weighs on your emotions. And the emotions aren't just heavy, they're cerebral, they're surreal and they're on a whole other level. I just know that this album is different than anything we've done."

When asked to elaborate, Clown refused, saying that the music, once it's released, would speak for itself. "Listen, we are the hardest ever," he said. "We blow all bands away. I don't give a f--- who your band is. I've probably played with your band, and you don't show me sh--. So, it's like, is this band heavy? Oh, yeah, we're the heaviest. We're heavy thinkers, heavy hitters, heavy writers and heavy people, but it's emotionally heavy. There's a lot of emotion on this record, and we're all on the same page with our own emotions, so you're finally seeing the kings of all the courts bringing their kingdom's jewels in for one gigantic war."

But Clown did admit that the record sounds more mature than anything they've done previously, because, well, they're all grown up.

"It's a record made by a bunch of f---ing adults, and that's why it's different. Every record should be different," Crahan said. "Our self-titled came out in '98, and the second record, people were thinking maybe we'd give 'em more commerciality, and give in like everybody else does. But instead, we go completely against that, and we made the anti-sophomore record, and we get all the respect for that.

"The third record, we start moving in directions we always wanted to. Basically, on the second record, it was like, 'We're the drug penetrating the vein, and we're on our way to your brain and your heart,' " he continued. "The third record was, 'Now, I'm in your brain. Check out this other sh--. No other band can handle this. No one can fathom what we do. This fourth record was done by a bunch of crazy guys in their 30s. That doesn't mean we're slowing down or not as intense — our brains are different, so we're bringing different emotions, different feelings and different anxieties to the table now. This record is another diagnosis of our insanity.

"No one has done what we have done," he added. "This is a war, man. The sh-- that we do, nine guys trying to f---ing write together, and keep this insanity going? Does anybody take the time to realize that? For me, this is like going to Vietnam, serving your tour and then the government asking you to do another tour because you're a badass. We've got 10 purple hearts, and we're f---ing killers. This isn't your rock and roll; this is our rock and roll."

For Crahan, making the record hasn't been a picnic. The music has taken an emotional toll on him ("This sh--'s real, it hurts, and I've cut myself open and given everything to this record," he said), but he's cool with that — so long as Slipknot's allegiant fans, the Maggots, aren't disappointed with it.

"The reason the fans love us is because they sense and feel something they've never gotten from anybody else — it's loyalty, it's respect and more importantly, they've finally found someone who feels like they feel," he said. "We're not your normal band. We represent something to kids they never gotten from school, or their parents, or other bands. We supply a feeling only Slipknot can supply. We have our own culture, because, we've done this 10 years for you, and 12 years for ourselves.

"We have nine guys, and all nine are different," Crahan went on. "But we're still doing this, so I'm amazed. That's how f---ing badass we are. Some stupid band with three members or four members wants to bellyache to me? Come on, man — this is the 'Knot. This is nine guys, an assault on the senses, a physical war through music, and it's going to be force-fed down your throat, and it will turn your insides out. It's been designed to destroy you."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Glenn Danzig's Blackest of the Black Tour will be returning this year, but the question is, when? While tour stops haven't been released yet (it's expected to kick off in October), the bill has. It'll feature Danzig, of course, along with Dimmu Borgir, Moonspell, Winds of Plague and Skeletonwitch. ...

Spastic British metallers SikTh have thrown in the towel. "A combination of factors has driven us to make this decision," the band said in a statement. "We want to assure you that if it were viable for us to carry on, we would. We are so proud of all that we have achieved as SikTh, and we have agreed to work together again in the future. We are currently involved in new projects so keep checking our personal pages for announcements." ...

Animosity have their drummer back. Navene Koperweis, who had taken a break from the band earlier this year, has returned to the fold. The band claims it has started writing new material for its next LP but provided no indication of when that effort could be in stores. ...

Hatebreed have dubbed their forthcoming covers collection For the Lions. The Connecticut hardcore harbingers will be tackling songs by Metallica, Misfits, Judge, Cro-Mags, D.R.I., Negative Approach, Agnostic Front, Madball, Obituary and Sheer Terror, among others, for the disc. ...

Bullet for My Valentine and Bleeding Through — on the same bill? Snore. But at least Cancer Bats and Black Tide will be opening for them. The trek kicks off July 14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and dates are booked through August 16 in Detroit. ...

Exodus have re-signed with Nuclear Blast, which will release the thrash legends' next LP, The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit B, later this year. The band began working on new tracks back in October. ...

Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky, which features former members of Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus and Dehumanized, have wrapped pre-production for their album, The Grand Partition and the Abrogation of Idolatry. The band plans on hitting the studio next month with producer James Murphy (Testament, Obituary), and complete the effort in time for release later this year.

• Slipknot
• Danzig
• Sikth

Best of 2006: The Red Carpet

• Fall Out Boy
• Beyoncé
• Gwen Stefani
• Gavin Rossdale
• Sean Paul

Ozzfest: A Look Back

• Rob Zombie
• Mudvayne
• Iron Maiden
• Black Label Society
• Andrew W.K.

Roadrunner United 12.15.2005

• Slipknot
• Stone Sour
• Hatebreed
• Murderdolls
• Deicide

The 48th Annual Grammy Nominees

• Mariah Carey
• Kanye West
• John Legend
• 50 Cent
• Black Eyed Peas

Infected: Slipknot screenshots

• Slipknot

47th Annual Grammy Awards Red Carpet

• Beyoncé
• Kanye West
• Mos Def
• Gwen Stefani
• Black Eyed Peas

Ozzfest at the CTNOW.com Meadows Music Centre in Hartford, CT 07.10.2004

• Slipknot
• Slayer
• Otep
• Lacuna Coil
• Lamb of God

Slipknot Photos (Behind the scenes of "Duality")

• Slipknot

Slipknot live on the Jagermeister Music Tour at Roseland Ballroom in NYC April 12, 2004

• Slipknot

Slipknot's 'Duality' Video Shoot

• Slipknot