As BLABBERMOUTH.NET first reported yesterday, ANTHRAX has abandoned plans to utilize the services of SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor on its next album due to scheduling conflicts with Taylor's other projects. ANTHRAX is said to be currently looking for a new singer to join the fold, although this has not yet been officially confirmed by the band or its management.

Until recently, Taylor had harbored hopes of replacing Joey Belladonna, who himself had taken John Bush's place in order to reunite the New York thrash group's best-known lineup.

As recently as June, Taylor was refusing to rule out the possibility that collaborating with ANTHRAX on the follow-up to "We've Come for You All", recorded with Bush in 2003, might lead to something a little more permanent. Having written lyrics to fit nine songs for the album, Taylor said he was "taking baby steps" towards what would happen next, though he was clear to point out his responsibilities towards SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR.

Talking on the latter's latest U.K. tour, Corey tells Metal Hammer magazine: "All I'm going to be able to do is help ANTHRAX with the album. I'd known all along that it would come down to how much time I had. Unfortunately but fortunately I've got a new album to do with SLIPKNOT. The SLIPKNOT guys got together for a brief meeting before I left home [in Iowa], and it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of laughing and goofing on each other. We all felt really stoked about starting up again. We've already started to put together a plan for the album and tour, everything starting to come together."

The flipside is that thoughts of doing anything meaningful with ANTHRAX are now impossible.

"Various people at the record company [Roadrunner] put their foot down about that," reveals Taylor. "So the way we've left it is that I will do a couple of songs with them, and not the whole album."

That must have been incredibly frustrating?

"Of course," Corey tells Metal Hammer. "I was so stoked that the ANTHRAX guys would consider doing anything with me. So the last thing I wanted to do was let them down. I have no idea of what they'll do now [that I'm unavailable], but the fact that they would still want to do something with me is very exciting. We'll have to see what happens."

Having broken ties with Ross Robinson to work with Rick Rubin, SLIPKNOT is still undecided as to who will produce the successor to 2004's "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)", but drummer Joey Jordison has already revealed that preparation for their fifth studio album (1996's independent debut "Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat" is often overlooked) begins in October.

"That's when the writing is due to start," clarifies Corey. "Recording will hopefully be in January, that's the plan at least."

Expect to hear the album in the spring, possibly preceded by live dates. Meanwhile, has the singer been stockpiling plenty of material?

"Oh, I've got an absolute ton of stuff, man," Corey tells Metal Hammer. "I got three notebooks of ideas from the past year and a half alone. It's so great, I think we're gonna do something really different with this album. Different, but brutal."

(Thanks: Metal Hammer)