Slipknot’s Jim Root responds to talk of new album ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ sounding like ‘Iowa’

"I would never in a million years compare anything we've done to anything we've previously done"

Slipknot guitarist Jim Root has downplayed claims that the band’s long-awaited new album ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ sounds like their seminal second record ‘Iowa’.

Last year, frontman Corey Taylor said that the record was shaping up to be “‘Iowa’ levels of heavy“, before later adding that “It kind of had a cross between the first album and ‘Iowa’”.

“I keep telling people that this is what the kids from Iowa would have made if they’d matured,” he continued. “It’s a step from that.”

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However, ahead of their blistering UK comeback at Download Festival this weekend, Root denied that their was much similarity between their upcoming sixth album and the 2001 classic.

“No. I would never in a million years compare anything we’ve done to anything we’ve previously done,” Root told Kerrang Radio. “I don’t believe in it. I think it’s bad, because no matter… I mean, you could say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna write the heaviest album of all time,’ or, ‘We’re gonna write an album that sounds like ‘Iowa’.’ Even if we set out to try to do so, it would never compare. We’re not those people anymore. We’re not that band anymore. That was a place in time; it was a snapshot of who we were at that time; and to try to recreate that, I think, would be contrived, and our fans would see right through it. ”

He continued: “And even if it was a great, really heavy, aggressive, organic record like that, the comparison wouldn’t match up to it. So I like to look at everything as an evolution. And if I’d compare anything, it wouldn’t be the songs themselves; it might be the process itself.”

Speaking of the process behind their second album, Root said that it was more of a communal writing and recording process.

“With this album, the demos were built; we worked on the demos; we got together; we were in the studio; we jammed with Jay [Weinberg, drums]; we did a number of takes with the click, a number of takes without the click, and it was always the ones without the click that made it.

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“But it was us as a band playing, and that gave that push and pull and that organic feel. Now, sonically, it’s gonna be different. That’s another thing — sonically, you’ll never match something you’ve done before. It’s hard to chase a vibe and catch a vibe. That’s why I don’t necessarily enjoy it when bands cover other songs. You’ll never recreate what has been done, especially if it’s something that’s legendary and classic.”

Slipknot
Corey Taylor of Slipknot performs on stage during day 2 of Download festival 2019. Credit: Eleanor Jane

Root went on to say that the record was being driven by a great amount of “rage” existing in “the day and age we’re living in”.

“For me, it’s just trying to learn my craft, as far as my demos, before it gets to the rest of the guys in the band,” he continued. “It’s trying to make something that I haven’t made before, trying not to repeat myself. It’s a learning process, the whole thing. So if I’m doing it, I’m just trying to be, like, ‘Oooh.’ If I catch a vibe that’s really cool, I’ll just go with it. I’ll be, like, ‘I’ve never written anything like this before. This is great’.”

Root added: “To see it grow and then come to the finishing stages of mastering, and then to even be playing something live, fuck, that’s gratifying. So, it’s just trying to outdo yourself, maybe.”

Fans are currently expecting the imminent announcement of a 2020 UK tour, after mysterious posters appeared to be teasing something across Download Festival this weekend.

‘We Are Not Your Kind’ will be released on August 9.

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