The darkly-hued, brutal menace of Slipknot’s fifth album, .5: The Gray Chapter captivated eager fans upon its release back in 2014. Starved of new Slipknot material since 2008’s All Hope is Gone, the album found its twin guitarists, Jim Root and Mick Thomson in rude, abrasive, health.
Speaking to us shortly after its release, Jim and Mick told us about the album’s turbulent context. Namely, the firing of star drummer Joey Jordison in 2013, and the sad death of the band’s original bassist Paul Gray in 2010. The album’s name, an overt tribute to their late co-founder.
“It was always in the back of our minds to do another album,” Root told us. “There were roadblocks, the main one being that we lost Paul. When we started touring soon after Paul passed away it was to see if we could carry on.”
With regards to the departure of Jordison (who himself would sadly pass away in 2021), Thomson stated that, “When you part ways with a drummer, you don’t know anything for a while. My desire was always there, but there’s a lot of people in the band and a lot of different shit that goes on in everyone’s lives.
“But when we got back together it was like we’d never been apart. The love was still there. It’s like hitting pause on your life and resuming it and nothing’s changed.”
The pair explained how lucky they felt to be in a band with such a vocal powerhouse and creative linchpin as Corey Taylor.
“We’re amazingly lucky to have a singer like Corey,” Mick shared. “Some people don’t like the softer shit, some people do… whatever. Corey’s aggressive shit is perfect in my opinion, but he can also sing like a motherfucker. It would be a travesty to stunt any of that. He’s got the range, so why not use it?”
Predominantly written by Taylor and Root, the record found a balance between the type of high-octane sonic extremity you’d expect from Slipknot, and more reflective arrangements. For instance, the beginning of the emotive ballad Goodbye.
“The Radiohead-y sounding stuff is [Native Instruments] Guitar Rig 5!,” Jim explained of the song’s Greenwood-esque tones. “Corey wrote Goodbye and I toyed around with it on my laptop in my hotel room, and the only thing I had to record with was Pro Tools 11.
“I found a nice ambient, airy patch, so I put on my Jonny Greenwood hat from Radiohead and went for it. Some moments on the record are my actual demo versions, because they captured a vibe that was hard to recreate. Goodbye was one of those moments.
“You wouldn’t have expected me to state Blur and Radiohead as influences. But I get bored and I sit around and play along to songs that I like.”
Jim went on to explain further how he regarded both Blur’s Graham Coxon, and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood as major influences.
“Radiohead and Slipknot may not be in the same genre, but they are influences in the way they approach guitar. Blur are another band I love; their new stuff as well as the old. A lot of my favourite guitarists are British rock ’n’ roll guys, from Jimmy Page up to Graham Coxon.
“As a writer, I’m interested in how guitar fits into pop music because pop music historically, and recently, isn’t very guitar-driven. So when you have Coxon in Blur, who can make guitar fit seamlessly into that style, to me that’s pretty amazing.”
Read our full classic interview with Jim Root and Mick Thomson here.
