Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor debuted his new mask on Saturday night, September 4 at the Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, OK, the band’s first concert since February 24, 2020. Several photos of Corey performing with his latest facial garb have surfaced online, which MetalSucks has collected below.
Slipknot typically debut new masks at the beginning of new album cycles, and the band has been recording their follow-up to We Are Not Your Kind (2019) since earlier this year. As of a couple weeks ago, recording for the album was complete save for three songs Taylor still needed to put his vocals on.
Taylor began teasing the mask in April, saying “it’s gonna fucking scare kids! It’s so gnarly, dude.” He explained in an interview at the time:
“Sometimes we have a vision in our head – Clown is really good at it, because he’s an artist, so he’ll go somewhere gnarly and be like, ‘Okay, I’ve got this image…’ and then we’ll have outside people create it. But then there’s some times where you’re just like, ‘I don’t have a real vision, but I have an idea,’ and you talk through it with a visual arts guy or a visual effects guy, and they will create it for you. And then you’ll look at it and go, ‘I like this, change this, blah blah blah.’ And you whittle it down until you get to something that’s really rad.
“My new mask is gonna fucking scare kids! It’s so gnarly, dude. It’s really uncomfortable; it freaked my wife out. She won’t look at it – and she loves crazy shit like that. She’s just like, ‘That’s really bothering me, you need to put that picture away!’”
Then, in May, he described the mask as “very disturbing,” explaining:
“It’s important for it to be a reflection of who we are in that music. And I can tell you that the mask I’m working on is very disturbing.
“It’s gonna be hard to look at. And it’ll probably be my favorite mask that I’ve ever put together. It’s little bits and pieces of things that have intrigued me, of masks that I’ve had in the past.
“And it’s gonna have a devil-may-care kind of terror to it, let’s put it that way.”
Check out some photos from last night’s show below. What do you think; is it “very disturbing?” would it scare kids? How does it stack up against past masks?
Taylor recently contracted Covid-19 while on his solo tour, but credited the vaccine with reducing the severity of his symptoms and duration of his illness. He is now fully recovered.
Slipknot will be on the road with Killswitch Engage, Fever 333 and Code Orange starting in late September. Dates:
Sep. 25 – Des Moines, IA – National Balloon Classic Field (Knotfest Iowa) [tickets]
Sep. 28 – Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre [tickets]
Sep. 29 – Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater [tickets]
Oct. 01 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center [tickets]
Oct. 02 – Clarkston, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre [tickets]
Oct. 03 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater [tickets]
Oct. 05 – Syracuse, NY – Lakeview Amphitheater – Syracuse [tickets]
Oct. 08 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center [tickets]
Oct. 09 – Hartford, CT – XFINITY Theatre [tickets]
Oct. 10 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center [tickets]
Oct. 12 – Camden, NJ – BB&T Pavilion [tickets]
Oct. 13 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live [tickets]
Oct. 15 – Burgettstown, PA – S&T Bank Music Park [tickets]
Oct. 17 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion [tickets]
Oct. 19 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre [tickets]
Oct. 20 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre [tickets]
Oct. 22 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek [tickets]
Oct. 23 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre [tickets]
Oct. 24 – Pelham, AL – Oak Mountain Amphitheatre [tickets]
Oct. 26 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP [tickets]
Oct. 28 – Del Valle, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater [tickets]
Oct. 29 – The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (no Code Orange) [tickets]
Oct. 30 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion [tickets]
Nov. 01 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater [tickets]
Nov. 02 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion [tickets]
Nov. 05 – Los Angeles, CA — Banc of California Stadium (Knotfest Los Angeles)