SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor recently spoke to Revolver magazine (web site) about the progress of the recording sessions for the sophomore album from his STONE SOUR project, which also features in its ranks Taylor's SLIPKNOT bandmate Jim Root (guitar). The follow-up the group's 2002 self-titled debut, which went gold and featured the hit single, "Bother", is being recorded in Los Angeles with producer Nick Rasculinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, VELVET REVOLVER) and features a guest appearance on drums by Roy Mayorga (ex-SOULFLY, currently a touring member of SEPULTURA). Mayorga was enlisted to lay down the drum tracks after the band's regular skinsman, Joel Ekman, was forced to sit out the recording sessions for the group's new album in order to spend time with his nine-year-old son, who was diagnosed with brain stem glioma (brain cancer) last fall.

"The first record was really just us making music and laughing a lot and having a good time in a studio in Iowa," Taylor told Revolver. "There were no real expectations. Now that we know we have an audience, it's way more crazy."

He continued, "It's priority No. 1 this year for Roadrunner [the band's record label], and they keep telling us, 'You've gotta stick to the schedule!' And then there's kids just fuckin' blowin' me up on the Internet, like, 'When's it coming out? When's it coming out?' I'm like, 'Wait, calm down — we just finished the fucking drum tracks, fer chrissakes!' but it's cool, you know? I thrive on the pressure, because it gets me going, and it gets me that much more psyched about it."

"This album's gonna be miles above the first one," promised Taylor. "Even with scratch guitar and really shitty scratch vocals, it already sounds powerful as fuck." Musically he describes it as "more melodic and darker than the first one. It's not goth rock, it's not fucking emo, it's not garage; it's fucking hard rock, man. It's good, heavy rock that's going to kick you in the face. Why would you want anything else?"

As for the disc's lyrical content, Taylor describes it as a combination of "pain, pleasure, happiness, and grief. People keep asking me what the theme of the album is. Well, there is no theme, you know? If anything, the theme is life, because life is spontaneous and aggravating all at once. You never know what you're going to have to go through on a daily basis — you never know what life's gonna throw at you.

"There's a track we recorded, that I hope makes it on the album, that's basically a love song to my wife, thanking her for dragging me out of the fire and helping me get sober. I've never written anything like that before, but it was very important for me to tell the world not only how much she saved me, but how much she means to me."