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It's been nearly 20 years since Slipknot released Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, the band's experimental third album that launched them from metal's top dogs to budding mainstream rockstars.
Like all of the best 'Knot records, the Vol. 3 process was the product of much tumult, torment and depression among the Iowa Nine's members, and for frontman Corey Taylor, some of those wounds still haven't fully scabbed over.
For the cover story of Revolver's new Fall 2023 issue, we collected fans' questions and posed them to Taylor, and one Buddy Zepko asked the frontman what sticks out when he thinks back to the making of Vol. 3.
"Oh God, that was such a pivotal time in my life," Taylor said. "I was in such a bad place, I don't really have a lot of memory of the first half of making that album, because I was so fucked up all the time.
"The thing that sticks out is that there was such a sense of trepidation before the album even came out. We weren't sure if anybody was even gonna dig it, you know? It wasn't until people got a load of 'Duality' that everything changed.
"We weren't sure if people were gonna be ready for an album like that; we weren't sure if we were ready for an album like that. And the recording of it left such a bad taste in my mouth that to this day I have a hard time listening to it.
"Obviously, a lot of it stems from how I feel about [producer] Rick Rubin; to me, Greg Fidelman produced that album, because Rubin wasn't there. He just fucking wasn't. And when he was, it's like he couldn't be bothered.
"We were definitely in a weird spot because suddenly we weren't just these dudes from Iowa — we were Slipknot, and a lot of takers were starting to kind of cling, trying to get their leech hooks into us, and it was a gnarly time.
"And I remember having writing sessions with Paul [Gray, Slipknot's late bass player] in his room, and he was struggling with his addictions and whatnot, and there was me trying to get freshly sober…
"But then when I look at all the massive songs that were on it, it's crazy. And right now, we're opening with 'Prelude 3.0' into 'Blister Exists,' which is such a great one-two punch.
"It makes me kind of look at that album with new eyes, and go, 'Maybe we did something right here!' Because at the time, I wasn't completely convinced."
