DES MOINES
Slipknot are in the studio, and according to the newest man behind the kit, they are in no hurry to please anyone but themselves. Drummer Eloy Casagrande, who joined the Iowa band in early 2024, confirmed in a new interview that work on the next Slipknot album is well under way — and described the sessions, repeatedly and pointedly, as an exercise in making what he calls real music.
The interview, with host Camilo Guzmán of Colombia’s Radiónica, was uploaded to YouTube on October 16. In it, Casagrande said the band is recording now and has built up a large stockpile of material. “Right now, we are recording the new album. We are doing the new record… We are doing a lot of songs — many, many songs,” he said, in comments transcribed by Blabbermouth. “The band is really happy with the music that we created so far. Everyone’s in a very good vibe.”
“We are making real music”
What Casagrande would not do is describe the songs themselves. He said he could not explain exactly what the band is doing in the studio, but he was emphatic about the mindset behind it. “We are being very honest to our fans. We are doing what we wanna do. We are doing what feels right for us to do at the moment,” he said. “That’s it. We are making real music. We are not thinking about business. We are not thinking about if the people are gonna like it or not. We are doing what we believe is right to do.”
He returned to the theme when Guzmán raised the modern habit of fast-consuming singles. “We are not thinking about selling our music. We are just thinking about art in the most pure way,” Casagrande said. “We are focusing on doing something that we like, that we feel proud of what we are doing.” He called the process “a very chill, very good process, very natural process, easygoing,” and added the simplest summary of all: “We are enjoying to play music, and that’s the most important.”
His first album with the band
The record will be Casagrande’s first full-length album with Slipknot, and he admitted the question of whether he would be allowed to be himself inside such an established machine was on his mind before he joined. “I was concerned if I would be able to be myself, to play the way I like to play, to be able to do real things, real music,” he said. Watching the rest of the band enjoy the sessions, he added, reassured him he had made the right decision: “We are in a very good moment. The feeling inside the band, inside all the members, it’s really good. So we’re just having fun to play music.”
Casagrande, 35 and born in Brazil, arrived in Slipknot in early 2024 after a 12-year run with Sepultura. He has talked about growing up on Slipknot’s records — and about the shock, as a young drummer, of first seeing original drummer Joey Jordison play. In the Radiónica interview he also described how his Brazilian musical background is bleeding into the new material whether he plans it or not. He grew up listening to metal alongside traditional Brazilian rhythms, and he says listeners tell him that even at his fastest and most extreme, there is a groove — a Brazilian pocket — underneath it. Loudwire’s account of the same interview includes his story of percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan initially reminding him, during an early rehearsal, that Slipknot is a metal band — and later, during recording, asking him to throw more Brazilian rhythms into the music.
According to Casagrande, the band wants exactly that individuality rather than an imitation of Jordison. It is a notable stance for a group whose identity was built, for decades, around a fixed nine-man presentation — and it arrives at a moment when that presentation has changed considerably.
A smaller Slipknot, a new single
The album will be the follow-up to 2022’s The End, So Far, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Top Album Sales chart. The first public step toward it came last month, when Slipknot released “Arsenal” on September 9 — their first new song in more than three years, their first recording with Casagrande, and their first studio track without longtime turntablist Sid Wilson, who parted ways with the band in August 2026. Sampler and keyboardist Craig Jones had already left in 2023, the same year drummer Jay Weinberg departed.
Guitarist Jim Root has said “Arsenal” will not appear on the new album — it was, in his account, simply the track the band could finish soonest. Root has also offered his own version of Casagrande’s no-compromise message. Responding to fans on social media in September, in comments reported by Loudwire, Root said a very important thing for the band right now is not repeating itself: “It’s gonna hurt some feelings. We’re really experimenting with different approaches… don’t expect another ‘Iowa’ or ‘self-titled’ record. We’ve been there.” Of the previous album, he was blunt: “TESF was disjointed and a mess. Some good stuff came from it. But overall Covid and the state of the world made that a very hard process for us.” Other reporting on the sessions has put the number of arrangements being worked on at around 50, with producer Matt Wallace behind the desk, though the band has announced no title, tracklist or release date.
First shows since Wilson’s exit — and a mysterious second stage
Whatever the album becomes, fans will hear this version of Slipknot live next summer. The band’s (sic)est Stadium Tour opens July 3, 2027 at Wembley Stadium in London and closes September 16 in Bogotá, Colombia — 19 dates in all, including 13 in North America: Washington, D.C., Queens, Chicago, Toronto, Montréal, Hershey, Boston, Nashville, Houston, Commerce City, Inglewood, San Francisco and Phoenix, plus South American stops in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Lima. Bring Me the Horizon appear on the North American dates, with a rotating cast that includes Lamb of God, Lorna Shore, Motionless in White, Polyphia, Loathe, Acid Bath, Kublai Khan TX and Vended; Marilyn Manson and Hatebreed join the Wembley and South American shows. The run will be Slipknot’s first live performances since Wilson’s split — indeed, their first shows in nearly two years, since a July 2025 appearance at Ohio’s Inkcarceration festival.
The staging has become a story of its own. The September 28 tour announcement promised “a brand new set, new staging and a setlist spanning across their career,” and fans buying tickets soon noticed that seating charts for some — but not all — stops include a bonus “B” stage set beyond the pit, in front of the seats. Reporting by Loudwire and Chaoszine lists Montréal, Boston, Nashville, San Francisco, São Paulo, Santiago, Lima and Bogotá among the stops where no B stage is currently shown. The band has not explained it, which has left fans speculating: Loudwire notes guesses ranging from a dedicated platform for Casagrande’s most intense solos to a second performance area the band can move between as the show progresses.
For now, the only firm promises are the ones coming out of the studio: a lot of songs, a band in a good mood, and a drummer insisting that none of it is being calculated. “To be here inside and see everybody enjoying what they are doing and see that we are being very honest with the art, with our instruments, with the music — that makes everything special,” Casagrande said. Fans will judge the result for themselves, first on record and then, next July, in stadiums.
