'The End, So Far': everything we know about the new Slipknot album

The End, So Far Slipknot album , will be available in stores and on digital platforms starting this Friday, the 30th. The highly anticipated album was announced in July, after a year of interviews with the band discussing it.

One of the first indications that an announcement was approaching was a mysterious teaser posted by the band on their social media. A short video with a compilation of various images of Slipknot throughout the years was published with the caption "The beginning of the end". In the background, it is possible to hear the narration of percussionist Clown saying: "This is Slipknot. Death will not stop Slipknot, the loss of original members will not stop Slipknot."

A few hours later, the band announced that the name of their new album would be The End, So Far . In a press release , Clown wrote: “New music, new art, new beginnings. Get ready for the end.” All these references to a mysterious “end” have confused fans, who still don't understand Slipknot's intentions.

Although the band hasn't revealed much about the project, the members have been talking about the successor to We Are Not Your Kind (2019) for about a year and a half. Check out everything we know about The End, So Far so far.

Concept album

In March 2021, Corey Taylor commented on the new album for the first time. In an interview for the show New & Approved , the vocalist revealed that he and Clown had compiled "a lot of material" and that "there was a chance" the album could become a concept album if the band managed to build it "the right way."

"The music is brilliant, it expands on what we did with We Are Not Your Kind and kind of blossoms from there," Corey said at the time.

"Lots of creativity" and a "liberating" feeling.

Shortly after Corey's interview in April, Clown spoke a bit about his own personal process in creating the album and revealed that he allowed himself to be "very creative" while making music in his basement, with his equipment and his friends.

According to him, the quarantine and pandemic period allowed him great creative freedom and also significant input from Corey Taylor on his ideas. “The pandemic hit and made me creative, and if anyone gets annoyed with me for being creative, I don’t know what to say about that. But I know we can use everything I’ve done or nothing – either way, I don’t care,” he commented.

A few months later, in July, Corey Taylor brought more news and revealed that he had finished writing all the lyrics. He reiterated that the album is an expansion of We Are Not Your Kind and that it contains heaviness and "many different elements".

“It’s the first time in a long time that I’m not speaking from my point of view [in the songs], I’m trying to look at it from other people’s point of view and trying to tell different stories again,” he commented. “I’m kind of returning to that and the feeling is liberating. It’s very liberating, man. It’s going to be insane. There are some songs that people are going to be like… They’re mosh pit starters that are going to drive people crazy.” 

"The Chapeltown Rag" and new masks

In December, Slipknot released the first single of this new era. The band made their first release since 2019 with "The Chapeltown Rag" and played the song live for the first time that same week during Knotfest Los Angeles . Later, an official music video was made with footage from the performance.

Along with the new release, the band also unveiled their new masks. As can be seen in the music video for the new song "The Dying Song (Time To Sing)", some members have already made further alterations to the item since then. While Clown and Michael Pfaff (also known as Tortilla Man ) made changes to the shapes and materials used, Sid Wilson completely changed the human design to something more robotic, with metallic eyes.

Slipknot's "more experimental" side and Corey Taylor's "totally new" voice.

Starting in February , Corey Taylor began describing the new album as "a heavier version of Vol. 3 ". At the time, the album was undergoing a mixing process that the vocalist estimated would last about three months.

In an interview, drummer Jay Weinberg expressed great enthusiasm for the new album and particularly praised a new vocal style adopted by Corey Taylor. "On some songs, Corey adopted this other voice which is totally new and very exciting. I remember the first time I heard some of the things he was adding to the demos and everything, and I thought, 'My God, this is going to be amazing,' and it's only gotten better since then," he commented.

In the same interview , Weinberg contradicted Corey Taylor's definition and said that the new album didn't remind him of past Slipknot material. He repeatedly emphasized that the band had done some "totally new" things and embraced a "more experimental" side, such as the inclusion of a choir in one of the songs – something that hadn't been done before.

He also revealed that the new album contains "the heaviest blues music in the world".

But what exactly is 'The End'?

According to Corey Taylor, the multiple references to an "end" in this new phase of the band are not a cause for concern.

During the band's performance at the Hills of Rock in Bulgaria, the vocalist responded to comments that followed the album's announcement in July. With the album's title suggesting an ending, fans worried that the group's breakup was closer than they imagined, but Taylor reassured them:

“Let me tell you something, some of you may have heard the news that Slipknot has a new album coming out very, very soon. The name of this album is called The End, So Far . And for those apocalyptic motherfuckers who think Slipknot is going to break up, that’s not the case. This simply represents the end of a moment and the beginning of the rest of our lives. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The End, So Far will be Slipknot's last album with Roadrunner Records, with whom Slipknot signed in 1998. This separation after so many years may have been what motivated the band to adopt this concept, talking about endings.

We can breathe a sigh of relief now!

"The Dying Song," "Yen," and mask exchange.

Along with the announcement of the new album, Slipknot also released the music video for the "The Dying Song (Time To Sing)" . The video was directed by band member Clown and shows that some members have made alterations to the masks previously presented as new ones.

While Michael Pfaff and the Clown himself made some improvements to their masks, Sid Wilson appeared in the video wearing a completely new version and holding the old one – and it didn't stop there. The DJ went on to use the previous mask as a souvenir on stage , attaching it to his equipment and installing a mechanism so that it would follow Corey Taylor's singing.

A month later, in August, the band released the third single from The End, So Far , "Yen ," where Corey Taylor appears without a mask.

High-quality career music videos

It's impossible to know for sure if this act is part of the promotion for the new album, but luckily for fans, Slipknot updated all the music videos in their catalog available on YouTube in September.

Previously, fans had to watch older videos in low quality, but now the entire catalog is in HD, including releases from 1999 to 2008, which were previously unavailable in high resolution. The update arrived last Thursday, the 14th, and all 22 music videos from Slipknot's career are available in this playlist .

Dark teasers and countdown

With the album nearing its end (due out on September 30th), Slipknot has begun a countdown to its release.

With 9 days to go until the premiere – the same number of band members – they started releasing short, mysterious teasers on social media, each focusing on a specific member and revealing the name of one of the album's unreleased songs. The countdown ends this Friday with the highly anticipated release of The End, So Far .