Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has revealed the motivation behind his new We Are Not Your Kind mask, designed by horror artist Tom Sivini. In an interview with Kerrang, Taylor said that the purpose of the mask was “to f*ck with people.”
The band’s new masks were recently unveiled in the video for the single “Unsainted” and again during Slipknot’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live this past Friday. Looking at comments on both social media and YouTube, Taylor’s mask has earned some mixed reviews among fans.
“I’m reminded that even though you want the best for people, sometimes you’ll get the worst,” Corey explained to Kerrang, echoing similar comments he made to Heavy Metal Hill. “I’ve been kind of made to feel like a villain, in a weird way. Which is fine. It was inevitable, and it doesn’t really bother me much. But, for a little bit, it did. I’ve always tried to be a good father, be a good man, be a good person. I went through some shit a few years ago, and in that time a lot of people had a reversal of opinion on who I was. Maybe it was because they were tired of hearing my name (laughs), which is so f*cking true — even I get to the point where I’m tired of hearing my own f*cking name.”
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He continued, “I said, ‘Okay, if you want a villain, you’ll get a f*cking villain.’ My vision [for the mask] was about trying to create something uncomfortable — not only for me to wear, but for people to look at. I wanted it to feel like it was something that was created in someone’s basement — something that was made specifically to f*ck with people. It’s the representation of public opinion turning on a dime — they want to tear people down for the way they live, even if they don’t really know them. It’s been liberating to embrace that side and be like, ‘F*ck you. I really don’t give a shit what you think about me, so here’s this!’”
In the same interview, Taylor reveals that We Are Not Your Kind features his darkest lyrical material in years. Taylor previously told the Des Moines Register that personal experiences inspired the new songs, having gone through a separation with his second wife.
“It’s very dark,” he said of the album in the Kerrang interview. “It’s some of the darkest writing I’ve done in years. In the Slipknot index, this album would sit somewhere between Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). Lyrically, it has the force of Iowa, but musically it has the heaviness but the experimentation, as well. It was very important for us to go somewhere crazy and make something insane.”
“I was able to let that pain go,” he added.
We Are Not Your Kind is out August 9th. The band will embark on a European tour in June, and headline the “Knotfest Roadshow” North American trek with Volbeat, Gojira, and Behemoth this summer. Pick up tickets to Slipknot’s upcoming shows here.
Watch the video for the lead single, “Unsainted”, below.