Slipknot Preview ‘The End, So Far’ LP With ‘The Dying Song’

Even a global pandemic can’t soften Slipknot who will return this fall with a new album, The End, So Far, which they’re heralding with a punishing new elegy, “The Dying Song (Time to Sing).” After a bittersweet chorus about putting your “life into your death,” the song opens with frontman Corey Taylor bellowing, “Die! Die! Die!” over pummeling guitar and drums as if it were just another Tuesday. “When no one else is listening, only when you’ve had enough,” he sings. “Time to sing this dying song alone.”

The song’s video, directed by percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, shows off the nine members’ creepy new masks, the most unsettling of which belongs to Sid Wilson, the band’s DJ, who looks like a mutant Jawa from Star Wars.

“New music, new art, and new beginnings,” Clown commented in a statement. “Get ready for the end.”

The full album, which the band co-produced with Joe Barresi (who mixed the band’s last two albums), will come out Sept. 30. It’s available for preorder now. Late last year, the group surprise-released another song from the sessions, “The Chapeltown Rag,” which will feature on The End, So Far.

To emphasize the now-ness of “the end,” the band will also hit the road around the time they release the album. They’ll kick off a short U.S. tour, which they’re calling the Knotfest Roadshow, in Nashville on Sept. 20 with support from Ice Nine Kills and Crown the Empire.

As soon as Covid restrictions loosened up, Taylor, as a solo artist, was one of the first acts to attempt Covid-safe touring. “The energy, the positivity, the togetherness, the excitement, and the generosity were off the charts,” he wrote in a tour diary for IndieLand. “From the intro to the fade of the outro, it was pure and perfect release. For me as a performer, I know now that we can get back to doing what makes our hearts sing. And I’ll tell you — that fact alone is worth taking precautions and doing it right. And that was just the first night.” Taylor was later diagnosed with Covid; he credited the vaccine with his strong recovery and he encouraged others to get vaccinated.

Since then, Slipknot also got back on the road, playing arenas this past spring.

The End, So Far Track List:

1. “Adderall”
2. “The Dying Song (Time to Sing)”
3. “The Chapeltown Rag”
4. “Yen”
5. “Hivemind”
6. “Warranty”
7. “Medicine for the Dead”
8. “Acidic”
9. “Heirloom”
10. “H377”
11. “De Sade”
12. “Finale”