Slipknot return with first song in two years ‘The Chapeltown Rag’
“It’s a punisher man. It's classic Slipknot. And it's frenetic,” frontman Corey Taylor said
Slipknot have returned with new single ‘The Chapeltown Rag’, their first new music in two years.
It comes after the band teased new music could be arriving soon with the launch of a mysterious NFT website.
Recorded for the currently unannounced new album, ‘The Chapeltown Rag’ dissects internet culture and its addictive nature.
“It’s a punisher man. It’s classic Slipknot. And it’s frenetic,” frontman Corey Taylor said. “But lyrically, it’s coming from a point of talking about the various manipulations that can happen when social media meets media itself. And the different ways that these manipulations can try to pull us in different directions, in the fact that we’re all becoming addicts to it, which is very, very dangerous.”
Shawn Crahan, better known as Slipknot’s Clown, added: “‘The Chapeltown Rag’ facilitates a sort of mindset that you’re going to like: it’s along the barnburner side of things.”
Listen to the new track below.
Taylor told Knotfest that the name track was inspired by the West Yorkshire suburb Chapeltown, the location of the Yorkshire Ripper murders. After watching a documentary about the murderer on Netflix, the streaming algorithm continued to recommend more similar watches to Taylor.
“At that moment, everything was just kind of steering towards violence, or a history of violence,” Taylor said. “And it was just such a weird echo of social media. And the fact that social media tries to steer you towards violence or steer you towards the most toxic thing – the most toxic moment. So I looked at it from that standpoint.”
He also spoke about quitting his social media two years ago (he’s since returned). “It’s such a different animal, social media – because there’s really nothing social about it.”
The band are due to debut the track live later tonight (November 5) during their first-ever livestream from Knotfest Los Angeles.
Lyrics from ‘The Chapeltown Rag’ were found on the Knotfest website, the band’s online hub, which brought users to a website called The Chapeltown Rag.
The website featured nine “eco-friendly NFTS” hosted on the carbon neutral WAX blockchain, which is used to sell and trade NFTs.
At first appearing to preview nine snippets of music, it was revealed that once all the pieces were assembled, it formed the single artwork.
Taylor last month shared that new music would be arriving soon.
Speaking on The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Taylor said: “It’s pretty much done. I’d say it’s probably about 80 per cent done. We’re finishing up some music [and] I’ve got a couple more songs to sing.”
Slipknot will also embark on a European tour next year, with shows scheduled for Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Switzerland and more across July and August 2022.