Slipknot: Abandon All Hope
Read the exclusive interview with Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn.
As the wind from an unforgiving cold front whipped across every inch of exposed flesh of the 13,000 concert goers at Concrete Street Ampitheater, one of nine figures on stage held the microphone to his mouth.
“I want to f*cking hear you sing it from the bottom of your hearts,” Corey Taylor screamed. “This song’s called Dead Memories.”
With energy explosive enough to simultaneously trigger mosh pits and orgasms, Slipknot erupted into a frenzy of controlled chaos.
The powerhouse of sound to Taylor’s left was Chris Fehn and the thunderous roar of his metal drum kit. Now rewind to about four hours earlier, when the freezing weather was only a few grey clouds looming threateningly over the empty stage, the thousands of mesmerized onlookers were only a few hundred fans lined in clusters at the front gate, and Fehn sat on a black futon in a backstage trailer, the air tinged with the scent of Glade air fresheners, and the skin beneath the tattoo of his on-stage alter ego inked his right leg was visibly swollen from a chipped shin only a few shows into their tour.
In addition to Fehn’s slip from his drum kit, turntable master Sid Wilson broke his feet, drummer Joey Jordison broke his ankle, and singer Corey Taylor injured his hand onstage all within the first few months of their tour.
“It’s certain things all the time, but it’s just part of it,” Fehn said. “It’s something every day.”
The American leg of the All Hope is Gone tour made a stop in Corpus Christi on Feb. 21, and the band will continue gigging into July of this year.
“It’s been going awesome. We’re seeing how much bigger we’re getting though all the hard work we’ve been doing,” Fehn said. “More people are showing up to see the band, and it really keeps us going.”
Fourteen years into Slipknot’s career, the band is determined to give each live show everything they’ve got.
“We’re getting a little older, but it’s still the same intensity and still the same energy,” Fehn said. “I think we take chances, and our live show’s definitely different than a lot of people’s. It’s really energetic and cool to watch, and we just take everything to the next level and try to stay on top of the game.”
All Hope is Gone, their fourth studio album, was released in Aug. 2008 and reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart the following September.
“It feels great. It was like the final place that we needed to get, and we finally did it, so now it’s like it can only go up from here,” Fehn said.
As they have done with their previous albums, Slipknot gave themselves plenty of breathing room after Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses) to make sure everything was just as fresh and innovative the next time around.
“We take a lot of time off between records, and that gives everybody time to step away and write on the off time and then come back even stronger,” Fehn said.
By the time a track is given the green light to be included on a record, it has passed through nine different musicians and about a month of tweaking.
“It usually starts off with drums tracks, and then the guitars come in,” Fehn said. “I usually wait for Corey to do the vocals, that way I can get into the songs better and figure out what parts I’m going to do.”
Much of his influence comes from the old school metal that he grew up on like Clutch, Metallica and Slayer.
“I still think we hold true to our Slipknot sound, but Corey is obviously singing a little more on this one than the other ones, and it’s a direction that we’re glad to go in because he’s really talented,” he said. “We keep real close control on the music, so it only gets on the record if we like it.”
Also new to the album was the man behind the scenes, producer Dave Fortman who has worked with acts like Evanescence, Otep and Mudvayne.
“He’s a really good drummer, so doing the drum parts, it was really cool having someone who knew how to communicate percussion wise,” Fehn said.
Of all the new tracks, he marks “Gematria” as his favorite because of “how heavy it is and how driving it is.”
“It’s our art, our songs,” he said. “They all have a special meaning.”
The more brutal the music and stage performance, the more chill Fehn and the rest of Slipknot can be when they step away from the soundboard and bright lights.
“It’s [about] allowing yourself to get some energy out that you might not otherwise have with some other styles of music,” he said “All of my friends, we all grew up in the metal world, and we all turned out fine. Everybody’s pretty mellow.”
Seeing as how it’s probably more fun to release your inner demons in front of throngs of screaming fans than spending all day in anger management, Slipknot will likely be doing their best to keep the metal dream alive for another 14 years. “It’s just good that we’re still here and still a viable band in the world and still have all the original members. That’s saying a lot to how we feel about the band,” Fehn said. “[We’re] just taking a risk sticking with it and believing that what we’re doing is what we want to do.”
