There's no part of this headline that won't make you weep

SLIPKNOT Drummer Working On New Project

Sing me to sleep: Corey Taylor conks out on stage

Let's face it - who wouldn't feel themselves slipping gently to sleep as Slipknot churned out the same songs for the billionth time? You can forgive Corey Taylor for deciding to have a quick nap instead of listening to the songs?

He says he was exhausted when he collapsed on stage in Dallas, not bored:

Taylor later addressed his health crisis in a post on Twitter.com, assuring fans he was just suffering from heat exhaustion and insisting he will be well enough to tackle the band's next gig.

He writes, "Hello everyone. I'm fine - just overheated in Dallas last night. Ready and waiting for Houston! Thank you to everyone for your concerns!"

Remind us, ContactMusic - what was the gig, again?

[P]art of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival tour

Ah, what an advert for the sponsor's project - an actual rockstar running out of energy. Still, at least they got the mayhem.

Rockobit: Paul Gray

Paul Gray, bassist with Slipknot, has been found dead in a hotel room in Des Moines.

Gray was a founder member of the masks-and-mumble-metal act, bringing the band together in 1995. At the outset, his 'mask' consisted of tape, but as the band sold more and more - gathering number one albums and Grammy awards - he moved on to more elaborate face-coverings.

For a man from a band who market nihilism, Gray's personal life was relatively quiet - a 2003 car crash led to a drugs conviction, but he hadn't appeared to be spiraling down Doherty-style.

He'd been working on a metal supergroup, Hail!, and had been about to head out on tour. Gray was taking over the bass from David Ellefson, who had been recalled to day job duties in Megadeath.

Hail! manager Mark Abbattista told Blabbermouth:

"I spoke to Paul over the weekend, and we had a great conversation. He was so upbeat and excited as we discussed all our final gear and travel details, went through our new setlist and joked about the most fun way to 'unmask' him onstage.

"We were so looking forward to playing with Paul on our upcoming tour and this is a complete tragedy.

"We are all in a state of shock and our heartfelt condolences go out to [Paul's wife] Brenna, his family, SLIPKNOT, their management and all his friends. This is a horrible loss and a very sad day."

Police aren't looking for anyone in connection with the death. An autopsy and toxicology reports are expected today.

Paul Gray leaves a wife, Brenna Paul. He was 38.

You wouldn't believe how unbelievable Slipknot are

Blabbermouth can barely save themselves from puking up their office festive pies with excitement at how astonishingly astonishing Slipknot are now:

Grammy-award winning hard rock iconoclasts SLIPKNOT have once again defied expectation. While no strangers to radio success, SLIPKNOT are climbing the charts again, but this time with an introspective track that challenges what some would expect from a hard rock radio song. This genre-bending new single, "Snuff", is currently Top 5 at Active Rock and Top 20 at Modern Rock and is climbing steadily.

When the time came to create a visual for "Snuff", once again the band did the unexpected. The band has unveiled a short film (see below), co-directed by SLIPKNOT's own M. Shawn Crahan and renowned photographer/director P.R. Brown, to accompany the track.

Cling, cling, to the crust of the Earth, for doesn't the very idea of a hard rock band knocking out a ballad with an accompanying video with pretensions threaten to almost disprove the very idea of gravity?

Let's hope Blabbermouth never buy an easy-listening collection by a nice, well-scrubbed young man. When they get to the lame cover of the rock song, their very heads might pop.

Rock sick list: Slipk-not well

Slipknot fans were left wailing "it's sooooo unfair" (so, no change there, then) as last night's gig was pulled. Blabbermouth explains:

SLIPKNOT was forced to cancel its headlining appearance last night (Saturday, August 22) at Seattle radio station KISW 99.9 FM's Pain in the Grass 2009 event in Auburn, Washington as drummer Joey Jordison had to be taken to the hospital for health reasons.

Taken to hospital for health reasons, you say? That would make the most sense. If you're taken to hospital for being on fire reasons, they usually send you elsewhere. And it's rubbish being taken to hospital for reasons relating to the need to renegotiate your deal on a unit trust.

Can you imagine turning up at hospital as one of Slipknot?
- Can you help me? I'm sick
- I know you are, sir, I've seen the cover art for your records

Kerrang Awards 2009: Or possibly 1999

You know why they have a newcomer prizes at the Kerrang awards? It's so you can double-check you're not, actually, looking at a list of winners from a decade ago.

I'm not sure if I can quite take seriously any prize-giving where Linkin Park are hailed as classic songwriters; much less one where there is a Hall Of Fame which retains a wing to praise Limp Bizkit.

The winners in full:

BEST BRITISH NEWCOMER: In Case Of Fire

BEST INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER: The Gaslight Anthem

BEST SINGLE: The Prodigy - Omen

BEST VIDEO: Mastodon - Oblivion

CLASSIC SONGWRITER: Linkin Park

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE: The Wildhearts

ICON: Alice In Chains

BEST ALBUM: Metallica - Death Magnetic

BEST LIVE BAND: Slipknot

INSPIRATION: Machine Head

HALL OF FAME: Limp Bizkit

BEST BRITISH BAND: Bullet For My Valentine

BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: Slipknot

Slipknot fan dies during gig

Upsetting news from Slipknot's US tour, where a fan collapsed and died during an Iowa gig. The man appears to have had a heart attack; his friends told the local paper he had a history of heart problems.

Slipknot worry about quality

Corey Taylor - oh-so-scary-bemasked-man from Slipknot - doesn't like new music:

"Why would you blame [people who download music]?" Taylor said. "Half the fucking albums that are out there are shit. I don't download, but at the same time, I don't buy new music 'cause it all sucks. Okay, there's a handful of bands that I buy, but other than that, I just buy old shit because old shit is good. Sorry!

"People wanna blame the decline of album sales on downloading, I think it's actually the record companies' fault," he added. "I think it's the quality of the product. If record companies would stop giving any fucking mook on the street with a fringe a record deal or their own record label, maybe you would sell more fucking albums, dipshits."

Maybe he has a point. Perhaps there's some overarching symbol of the decline in quality of mainstream releases; some indication that anyone at all can get a record company and a huge marketing push, dominating the marketplace and driving down standards across the chart racks? Like, say, Slipknot being number one?

After all, if you're suggesting that the current state of chart music is terrible, and you're the leading brand in that market, what other conclusion would you reach?

How do you actually demand a chart recount?

Slipknot have stolen the US album chart number one position from The Game.

The Game's LAX was ahead when the chart was first published, but only by a thin slither of a margin, so for some reason, they decided to count again. This time - somehow - All Hope Is Gone came out on top. So that's the number one.

Given that the data must have stayed the same, and presuming that they use a computer to do the adding up, how exactly did it get two different results from the same process on the same numbers? Or are the US album charts counted by hand, using huge ledgers and abacuses? Did Microsoft issue a patch halfway through to correct the "7+7=13" bug?

We might never know. We should, however, be delighted that the compilers of the American chart take their job of awarding the prize to the correct candidate so seriously. If only they could be put in charge of the presidential election results.

Slipknot slip, not playing Reading

Slipknot have pulled out of Reading/Leeds, after realising that it's 2008. Sorry, that should be after Joey broke his ankle:

To Our Fans:
It is with huge regret and disappointment that we have been forced to cancel our imminent festival appearances at Leeds and Reading. The other night, Joey Jordison broke his ankle and doctors have advised Joey to stay off his leg for 4-6 weeks to prevent further injury or permanent and more serious damage.

We know you will be hugely disappointed and so are we. Cancelling shows is never an easy decision and we apologize to all our fans, friends and family for not being there to throw down with you.

Stay,
Slipknot

Presumably their family, though, aren't going to be quite as disappointed? Unless they only have access rights during festival season?

Slip-knot our fault

It's grimly amusing the way that bands who base their image on murder and death and fear and misery suddenly start backtracking when they suddenly get linked to actual murder and death. It happened with Marilyn Manson over Columbine; now, Slipknot are desperately trying to disassociate themselves from a murder in South Africa where the lad who stabbed four people with a sword while wearing a "Slipknot" mask:

Yesterday, a representative of the label representing Slipknot told The Times the band had no comment.

Declining to provide her name, the woman at Roadrunner Records said: “We’ve had no confirmation that it was, in fact, a Slipknot mask. The band is not going to respond.”

It's odd that they have so much to say about mayhem normally, but come over queasy when it's suddenly all real.

It's too simplistic to 'blame' music for people's behaviour, but if you don't want to find yourself being asked awkward questions about stabbings, perhaps you shouldn't dress up a serial killers and throw entrails about in the first place? If you're serious about shining a light into the darkest areas of the human psyche, why do you squeal and go into hiding when it gets reflected back?

UN calls emergency session - planet 'unprepared' for new Slipknot album

Corey Taylor has been busy making a new Slipknot record. Apparently this time it's different:

"It's going to rip your face off," Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor tells Billboard.com with confidence. "I don't think the world will be ready for this album."

I hope that they take care to make sure it doesn't rip off the faces of small children - perhaps there needs to be some sort of safety guard on the disc?

But he's right. The world isn't ready for a new Slipknot record. If we all live for another thousand years, we won't be thinking "we could really do with a new Slipknot album right now."

Anthrax tighten Slipknot

It's a marriage made in Hades: Corey Taylor is seriously considering an offer to join Anthrax:

It's kind of a dream come true, Anthrax is one of my favorite bands.

"We're just kind of taking baby steps right now. I know that we worked on about eight or nine songs together that I've written lyrics for.

"But there's nothing definite right now. It's one of those things where it's like we're just gonna kind of play it by ear and just see what happens. I'm in two huge bands right now. So it's like I barely get enough time to sleep, let alone do another band."

You must make more time to sleep, Corey. Lots and lots of time to sleep.

Sour sours

Unwanted offshoot from largely unwanted Slipknot, Stone Sour, have pulled their European tour dates, on account of an unexpected "family commitment."

Presumably one of the family asked them why they were bothering to go to Europe to make themselves look dull, when they could stay at home and do the same?

Slipknot fear for our minds

Corey Taylor really is a simple man, isn't he? He doesn't like music videos or visuals because they "kill the imagination" - although apparently dressing like a bunch of op shop clowns isn't a problem. He mentions this, of course, after the two (two) DVDs have already shipped. And he seems to think that Disasterpieces is a clever coinage. We bet he does whittling, too.

Slip not happy

Want something else to cheer you up on a cold autumn day?

Frontman Corey Taylor tells Undercover News "There's a lot of negativity in the Slipknot camp right now that is hard to get past".

For parents who've had to deal with mopey teenagers in Slipknot tshirts over the last few years, this might appear to be some form of karma. But what does a member of Slipknot do after they've cried "You lot just don't understand me. I didn't ask to be a bloke in a clown mask" and stomped upstairs? Play folk music really loud?