Slipknot appear to have parted ways with keyboardist/sampler Craig Jones. The band announced Jones's apparent departure via a since-deleted Instagram post yesterday, stating "To our fans, Slipknot is announcing that we have parted ways with Craig Jones. We wish Jones all the best for the future." On the surface it seemed like an abrupt end to Jones's 27-year tenure as Slipknot's #5, however, the deletion of the post and the unveiling of a new, unnamed masked member, first via social media and then live at Austria's Nova Rock festival has many fans pondering whether all is as it seems. You can view the announcement of the 'new' #5 and footage from the Nova Rock appearance below.
The Nova Rock performance was also notable for being the first Slipknot show in many years to take place without Clown, who in the hours prior to Jones's departure shared with fans via social media that he was taking time away from touring to spend more time with his family. In a post on Twitter, Clown shared the following message to his beloved maggot faithful. "Hello to all of our fans, it’s the clown. I would like to take a moment to tell everyone that I’m back home supporting my wife through some health issues, and I’ll be back on the road as soon as I can. We’ve been through this before and as always, we appreciate the love and support. See all of you very soon. Thank you. Clown”.
Hello to all of our fans, it’s the clown. I would like to take a moment to tell everyone that I’m back home supporting my wife through some health issues, and I’ll be back on the road as soon as I can.
We’ve been through this before and as always, we appreciate the love and… pic.twitter.com/ZpF0EsJIv9— Slipknot (@slipknot) June 7, 2023
Further adding to the mystery surrounding the status of Slipknot, the band has launched a cryptic website. YouCantKillMe.Com which appears to tease new music from the beloved extreme metallers will be with us soon. Embedded within the site is a disturbing video titled Death March, beneath that is an email sign-up form. Whether this has anything to do with the apparent exit of Jones from the band, remains to be seen, one thing that can be confirmed is that all of this mystery has the metal world firmly focused on the future of Slipknot.
The recent debut of Knotfest Australia may have been Australian maggot's last chance to see Jones and Clown perform with the band. The sold-out three festival run was also their first opportunity to hear tracks from Slipknot's seventh full-length album The End, So Far and their 2019 record We Are Not Your Kind, with The Dying Song (Time To Sing) from the former and All Out Life and Unsainted from the latter making their live debuts down under at Knotfest Melbourne.
Produced collaboratively by Joe Baressi (Queens Of The Stone Age, Soundgarden, Avenged Sevenfold, Parkway Drive) and Slipknot, The End, So Far is the follow-up to Slipknot’s 2019 We Are Not Your Kind which marked the band’s third consecutive #1 on the ARIA album chart.
To celebrate the widely anticipated release we caught up with Slipknot bass player, Alessandro 'V-Man' Venturella for a discussion about all things The End, So Far, if you haven't already, head on over and give it a read.
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Listen To The End, So Far
