While we’re looking at years until the next Slipknot album arrives, members of the band continue to push ahead with new material for it. Previously the group revealed they had planned to begin writing for the effort early this year. Percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan recently told WRIF of their progress:

“Well, we’re writing as a band, and with Corey [Taylor] as well. Yes, we’re off, and we’re off for a while for a long while. Okay, [it’s] much needed. We’d been touring for three years. Corey‘s doing what he does, which is Stone Sour, which is awesome. - Advertisement - And he’s living that life, which is awesome, ’cause he does really well and love it; You know what I’m saying? It’s his art. So he does that. And we’re writing. We’re beginning to write some music for Slipknot for the new record. He’s aware of it, I think people forget that, like they separate crap, like they’re supposed to in their brains separate both bands. But let’s never forget Corey Taylor is the singer of Slipknot, always and forever. So while we’re writing, he’s getting songs.”

He continued:

“But we’re not just gonna sit around… some of us aren’t just gonna sit around, because we’ve done that for twenty years. We just feel like writing. We’ve had so much fun writing ‘The Gray Chapter‘, and people that started writing together during this album cycle never wrote together in fifteen years, so things are a little bit different and it’s amazing and it’s fun, and we have a good time.”

He later added:

“We have a lot of stuff already that we wrote out on the road for the last three years. We have songs that we’ve written that are amazing.”

As stated above, while various members of the band are likely enjoying their downtime after a lengthy touring cycle, it will be awhile before the next album hits stores. A large part of that wait will likely be frontman Corey Taylor‘s plans to spend the next year or two touring with Stone Sour, who will have a new album out later this year.