Corey Taylor, Halestorm, Fort Rock producers support school safety initiatives

In the month since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the world has seen as its students, as well as students around the country, join forces to demand that the government do something about gun control and school safety. Last week, a benefit concert featuring Dashboard Confessional, former Yellowcard singer Ryan Key, and Parkland natives New Found Glory was announced and now, it looks like a massive music festival is getting in on the action.

On Wednesday (March 7), the people behind the World’s Loudest Month concert series, Danny Wimmer Presents, announced that they will be offering 50 percent off general admission weekend tickets to Fort Rock for those who sign the Students Fighting Guns Since Adults Won’t petition. The petition was created by high school student Julia Kemple of Kalamazoo, Mich. in response to last month’s school shooting. The petition has so far garnered signatures from over 200,000 people across the nation.

Backing the music festival’s decision to support the petition and the students’ gun control/school safety movement are headliners Corey Taylor and Halestorm as well as Danny Wimmer Presents CEO/Broward Country native Danny Hayes.

“I’m absolutely behind this movement. Not only the name itself, but the reason and the cause. As a father, my one concern is my children. The fact that no one is doing anything worthwhile to change the horrendous laws and circumstances around these shootings is unacceptable,” Taylor expresses in a press statement. “[So] if the adults can’t extricate themselves from the politics that are keeping them from ACTUALLY making a difference, I support the generation who will.”

“To all the students that have been affected by gun violence, and to students everywhere, YOU are the ones we’ve been waiting for. Our future is what YOU make it and the path is yours to blaze. YOU are the fire!,” a joint press statement from Halestorm reads. “We are proud to stand by you as we push to make this planet a better place.”

“The wording of Julia’s petition is profound. We should all be ashamed that our nation’s youth feels unprotected by those in charge,” begins Hayes in his own press statement. “As a Broward County, Florida native, the Stoneman Douglas tragedy really hit home for me. We are so deeply touched and moved by the courage and fortitude of the students at Stoneman Douglas High School. They have turned trauma into strength. As a society we must act quickly to give them the protection they deserve.”

This special promotion will be available to future Fort Rock ticket buyers. For those who already purchased a ticket to the festival, the concert promoters still ask that they sign the petition and spread it to as many people as they can. Those who would like to take advantage of this promotion are asked to simply sign the petition, take a screenshot of the signed petition (or forward the confirmation email), and send it to dh@dwpresents.com. This promotion will only be available until April 1, 2018 while supplies last.

On Feb. 14, an armed shooter entered Stoneman Douglas High School towards the end of the school day and began shooting, killing a total 17 people. Since then, the Douglas students have been vocal about supporting stricter gun control laws.

In conjunction with their movement, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington D.C. on Saturday, March 24, to demand that their lives and safety as well as the ending of gun violence and mass shootings become a priority. For those not in D.C., there will be almost 500 marches taking place worldwide. To find a local march or to sign the petition, head on over to the March For Our Lives website.

As for Fort Rock, the sixth incarnation of the annual music festival announced a major change when it was confirmed that they would no longer call the JetBlue Park in Fort Myers home. This year, Fort Rock will make its debut at Markham Park in Sunrise, Fla. Fort Rock will take place during the weekend of April 28-29.

This year’s lineup will include performances by Ozzy Osbourne, Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch, Stone Sour, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Stone Temple Pilots, Halestorm, and many more.

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor to guest on new Korn album

Fans of Slipknot and Korn are about to get some seriously cool news; there’s going to be a collaboration real soon. On Wednesday (July 13), Metal Hammer confirmed the news that Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor will be appearing on Korn’s upcoming new album. Korn guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer broke the news while speaking to the publication about their upcoming new record.

“We have Corey singing on one track and it’s going to be a fan favorite because he really lets loose,” Shaffer reveals. “On a heaviness scale of one to 10 with 10 being the 1994 self-titled, this album is a definite nine.”

The still-untitled record will be California band’s 12th studio record and currently has a projected release time frame of later this year. The impending record is the follow-up to 2013’s The Paradigm Shift which marked the return of guitarist Brian “Head” Welch. Shaffer also touched on what it was like to have Welch back in the group after quitting the band in 2005.

“When Head came back to us on the last record, it was our way of getting the wheels greased. Now everything is well-oiled and the machine works really well.”

In a few days, Korn is slated to kick off their summer “Return of t Dreads” tour with Rob Zombie. After a little break, they will hit the road again with Breaking Benjamin for their joint “Nocturnal Underground” tour. The dates for the upcoming tours can be found here and here.

Slipknot Frontman “Not Happy” About New Members Reveal

When fans are given a mystery they really want the answer to, they could be better detectives than those at your police department.

When Slipknot announced that there were two new members in the band filling the two vacancies that the band had, fans were a little less than thrilled with the fact that frontman Corey Taylor had been mum about the real life identities of them.

Instead of waiting for Taylor to make an official announcement which he kind of hinted at, the fans went ahead and started to investigate and once the music video for “The Devil in I,” was released, it only confirmed the identity of at least one new member thanks to a distinct tattoo on the masked band member’s hand.

It just looked like the months of being discreet backfired in one simple scene.

“I was, like, ‘Why didn’t we make him wear gloves?’ I was so upset. I was, like, we thought of all this stuff. We put the hood on him and then the mask, and it was, like, ‘It’s really hot, guys,’ And then there is his tattoos for everybody [to see]. I was, like, ‘Well, we missed the mark on that one.’”

The new bassist was confirmed to be Alessandro “Vman” Venturella, guitar tech for bands like Mastodan and Coheed & Cambria.

And then the identity of the drummer was released soon after and was somewhat confirmed when Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace sent Slipknot a cryptic tweet about their choice in drummers. The news then surfaced that former Against Me! drummer Jay Weinberg, who quit via Twitter, was Slipknot’s new drummer.

When asked about the new members in a recent interview, Taylor revealed that they are not “official” members of Slipknot yet and that only time will tell if they get that position.

“They’re not official band members yet, but they are people who play with the band,” Taylor said.  “Time will tell whether or not they’re, like, full members. “With this band, you earn everything. You’re not just given that shot; you have to earn it. And so far, they’re doing really well. And we’re really enjoying jamming with them.”

Guess that explains why Weinberg and Venturella are wearing matching masks.

Slipknot Frontman Talks New Masks, New Album

Slipknot is probably more well-known for their crazy and outrageous masks and how they tend to change the designs of them depending on their albums. With two important members of the group gone from the line-up and no current replacements known, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor was recently asked about those iconic masks that distinguish each individual member.

In the interview, Taylor revealed that one design had been created for the incoming bassist and drummer. Though that sounds like they are trying to not include them in the group, Taylor reveals why they decided to take that path.

“We wanted to make something that still looked unified but still stayed with the spirit of what the band is all about. Instead of trying to find something that was individualistic, we designed — well, Clown designed a mask that the drummer and the bass player will both wear. On one hand they get a mask but at the same time, it’s not the individual mask that we in the band use.

We knew that any attempt to do anything like that might be taken as disrespectful, but at the same time it’s part of the way of moving, getting past the hardest steps, which is just moving on. So, we decided that we would come up with a mask that works for both the bassist and the drummer and that’s what they’ll wear on stage.”

Considering that this was the first album that was recorded without founding members, Paul Gray who died of an accidental overdose in 2010 and Joey Jordison who “left” the band earlier this year, Taylor had also been asked what it was like recording without them.

“I don’t know if it was uncomfortable, but the big difference was that it was the first album that we were doing without Paul, without Joe, and you know when you find yourself in a situation like that you either fall back on your heels or you rise to the occasion and you ask yourself how can we kind of fill in those blanks and still make the kind of music we want to listen to?

So I think that the biggest thing for us was to just fill in some really big shoes. Luckily we really rose to the occasion and really kind of went above and beyond as far as musically. I’m loving this new album. I mean just as not only as a person who’s in Slipknot but just as a fan of music like this. I really love what we’ve done on this album.”

Slipknot’s fifth studio album .5: The Gray Chapter is set to be released on Oct. 21 through Roadrunner. In support of the new record, Slipknot will be hitting the road on their “Prepare for Hell” tour alongside Korn and King 810.

In case you missed it, check out the trailer below.

Slipknot Stream First New Song in Six Years

After a couple of months of teasers and cryptic nudges, Slipknot have finally revealed, officially, that their new album is coming out soon.

And how exactly does one of the bigger metal bands of our generation announce the new record? By releasing the first single from it.

The new song is titled, “The Negative One” and it’s the first new song from the Iowa-based band in six years. The official music video for the song is slated to be released in next Tuesday, August 5th, but for now, we have been given the song which is streaming exclusively on their website, Slipknot1.com.

A few months back, frontman Corey Taylor had discreetly unveiled that the band was “98 percent” done with the new record that it would be coming out relatively soon. Other than that, no more information had been given as to when it would be released or what they might name their fifth studio album.

The new material comes almost six months after the founding member/drummer, Joey Jordison left the band. At the time, the band had claimed that Jordison had “departed” the band, but it turns out, things were not that clean cut. Jordison took to the internet to unveil that he did not choose to “leave” the band, leaving most to assume that the original member had been kicked out of the band.

This also marks the first record that the band has record since the death of bassist Paul Gray, who passed away in 2010.

Slipknot’s New Record is “98 Percent Done”

The week before news broke that original Slipknot member Joey Jordison had left the band (or was fired, we never really got a true answer to what happened), guitarist Jim Root has posted a picture of himself int he studio with the simple hashtag, #slipknot2014.

Now, frontman Corey Taylor is confirming what had already been said previously; that a new album is in the works. The thing that make this different is that during an interview with Loudwire, Taylor confirmed that the new record is “98 percent done.” In the same interview, he teased that there will be “big things to hear soon.”

How soon, that we are not sure of.

Read an excerpt from the interview below or you can head on over to Loudwire and check out the full interview where you can read about what’s the difference between touring with Stone Sour opposed to Slipknot, how crazy thee Slipknot fanbase are and of course about the new record.

“Corey, tell us about the progress and where things are at with the new Slipknot album.

The album is done. Oh yes. I’d say 98 percent done. I’m in the process of heading to the studio to give a listen, see if there’s anything we need to touch up. But yeah, it is very close. The next step is the mix, and we’re going to try to get it out very soon. There will be big announcements soon. Big things to hear, soon. That’s really all I can say about it. I know we’re anything, if not diligent to our plan. The plan is to just slowly but surely get people to lose their minds for the next couple of months with just little stuff here and there leaked.”

Slipknot’s last album was 2008’s All Hope Is Gone which was recorded before the untimely death of Paul Gray and of course well before Jordison’s departure.