A big part of Slipknot‘s album cycles is getting to see their new masks. Ever since 2001’s Iowa, the band have used release cycles to reveal different sides of themselves to the world via their facewear. Now, drummer Jay Weinberg has revealed his new mask to the world via the band’s Knotfest LA show — and ho boy, if this is an expression of his life right now, we’re a little worried.
While Jay’s mask was visible during the band’s livestream performance, the drummer also posted a close-up shot on his Instagram, writing, “I want a face — that you can only recognize — I’m afraid.”
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JEEESUS. Corey Taylor’s new mask is cool and all, but this one might take the cake.
Jay’s mask wasn’t the only new thing to be revealed at Knotfest LA — the band also gave their new single, “The Chapeltown Rag,” its live debut. For those of you who haven’t heard it yet, the track is gnarly and overflowing with bile, the song channeling the fucked-up Slipknot of old rather than the hooky, more polished incarnation of the band we know today.
“It’s classic Slipknot,” says Taylor of the track. “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.”
What fans will immediately notice in the live footage is that Slipknot seem to be taking their time to get this one right. “The Chapeltown Rag” isn’t a typical single with a singalong chorus that fans can easily be sucked into; the track is an angry mid-album Slipknot song, and as such has a little more to do with death metal than it does with nu-metal. Maybe that’s why the band come off as a bit more focused and stationary than one might be used to. Clown and Tortilla Man seem to be really feeding off of each other, and Corey Taylor is putting a lot of his back and shoulders into every bellow. These dudes have to concentrate to nail a song with this many knuckles and elbows.
Check out the live debut of “The Chapeltown Rag” below:
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Words by Chris Krovatin
