SLIPKNOT percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan recently told Radio Iowa that the music industry has changed so bands now make their money from concerts rather than albums.

Crahan said. "I'll just be honest. I've never made a dollar on a record. We make our money on the road."

Crahan's band plays a lot of shows in Europe where the festival scene appears to be much more vibrant. "I think America needs to look toward Europe and see what they're doing because over there they all get crazy and they need to have festivals and they just go and they take, like, weeks off and everybody — it doesn't matter if it's your boss or your mom or whatever — it's festival time," Crahan said. "I've played these festivals and they're more than just music. It's cultural. It's have a drink. Have food. Let's take a break from our job and let's really figure out life and then you come to America and it's all, like, selling buttons and this and that and, you know, it's really difficult."

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor told Billboard.com earlier in the month that the band's new album, tentatively due out on August 12, will "rip your face off," adding, "I don't think the world will be ready for this album." The group's yet-to-be-titled fourth effort will follow up 2004's "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)", with Taylor calling it a "very dark" cross between that and its 2001 sophomore CD, "Iowa". Taylor described the new record as having "so much power in it and yet there are so many great spots for melody...It's a controlled chaos that hits you right out of the gate."

Taylor, who also fronts the more melodic STONE SOUR, said that his vocals are in a similar vein on this SLIPKNOT outing. He explained, "I got to the point where I was tired of pretending that I couldn't sing every time I made a SLIPKNOT album, so this time I'm going all out."

As for the album's lyrical direction, Taylor revealed, "Instead of bitching about what went wrong in my life, I'm bitching about what's wrong in life, period."

Taylor also said that new music is already in the works for the third STONE SOUR album, which will follow 2006's "Come What(ever) May".

New images on SLIPKNOT's official web site have hinted at a change in the masks and costumes that are a trademark of the Iowa-based nine-piece. Taylor described the new outfits as "evolved," adding that they are "very dark and will fit in everything image-wise that we're making with this album."

SLIPKNOT will co-headline this summer's Rockstar Energy Mayhem tour with DISTURBED, beginning on July 9 in Seattle.

One of new SLIPKNOT images along with audio from the band's official web site: