SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor spoke to MTV.com about the upcoming sophomore effort from his STONE SOUR project, which also features SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root. He'll be flying out to FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl's Los Angeles studio on January 22 to begin recording the as-yet-untitled follow-up to the band's self-titled 2002 debut, which has sold more than 500,000 copies.

"This is the first time that [guitarist] Josh [Rand] and [drummer] Joel [Ekman] and [bassist] Shawn [Economaki] get to go through the whole experience," Taylor said. "The first time around, there weren't any expectations. We were going to do our thing, put our art out there and just see what happened. And people really dug it, and there's a lot of anticipation for this, so we're stepping it up. We've got so many different styles going on right now that it's really cool. We were just like, 'What can we do to top the first album? What can we do to take it to the next level?' And I think we have. The material on this [album] is so much stronger than the first album, it's almost a pity."

Taylor said STONE SOUR's fans can expect some "very atmospheric stuff," along with the "the hard rock and the heavy stuff" that'll saturate the outing. "It's a lot more melodic this time around, a lot more from the spirit of what the band started with in 1992," he continued. "It represents so much more of what we do. There's a really beautiful piano tune. There's a song that's borderline funk that's really cool — I'm really digging the hell out of it. It's like a cross between the theme song from 'Shaft' and I don't know what. It's melodic as f---."

Before SLIPKNOT announced they would be taking 2006 off, Taylor said the band was offered the headlining spot for this summer's Ozzfest.

"We were out on the road for two years, and we did the entire 2004 Ozzfest," he explained. "It [was] time for some of us to take a break. They offered us a lot of money, but it wasn't about that. If you burn up the audience, they're not going to come back. How much more can you do, on an album that came out two years ago? I'm much more interested in doing STONE SOUR these days.

"Now, if they asked me to do STONE SOUR on Ozzfest, that's a different story."

Read more at MTV.com.