SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has revealed to the "Loudwire Nights With Full Metal Jackie" radio show that the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" is "98 percent done." He added: "I'm in the process of heading to the studio to give a listen, see if there's anything we need to touch up. But yeah, it is very close. The next step is the mix, and we're going to try to get it out very soon. There will be big announcements soon. Big things to hear, soon. That's really all I can say about it. I know we're anything, if not diligent to our plan. The plan is to just slowly but surely get people to lose their minds for the next couple of months with just little stuff here and there leaked."

SLIPKNOT's next CD will be the band's first since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and December 2013 departure of drummer Joey Jordison, one of the group's founding members and key songwriters.

Asked what has been most fulfilling about working on new SLIPKNOT music that he never experienced before, Corey told Full Metal Jackie: "This one, it just feels, there's something weird about this one. Obviously this is the first album we're making without Paul.

"After everything we went through, there's a catharsis that comes with this, being able to throw all the emotion and aggression out that we've been holding onto. At the same time, getting to be creative again. Feeling that juice coming back into us. It's been a real positive experience just from an artistic standpoint, a lyrical standpoint.

"We're making an album that's not just a reflection. Let's just get new music out there. There's something very vital with what we're trying to do. There's something very visceral with the emotion we're playing with and trying to tell the story of a band that's gone through hell, and yet we're back. It's been really fulfilling."

Corey recently described the musical direction of the new SLIPKNOT material as "a great mesh of [2001's] 'Iowa' and [2004's] 'Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)'." He explained: "You've got the gorgeous melodies and the artistic direction of 'Vol. 3' and then you've got the absolute brutality of 'Iowa'. And I think people are gonna lose their minds when they hear it."

Even though SLIPKNOT's last album, "All Hope Is Gone", came out in 2008, Taylor said, "The good thing is we've always been writing, so there's a ton of stuff that we're pretty stoked on. It's exactly what you want it to be."

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he has high hopes for the band's next album. "That record is going to be, I predict, one of the most serious things that we will have ever comprehended that we've ever done in our life," he said. "And we pretty much say that on every record, but I really feel that when the time comes, what will be on hand is going to be something almost unimaginable."

The band is rumored to have recruited drummer Jay Weinberg to play on the new album. Weinberg is the son of Max Weinberg, longtime BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND drummer.

SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison. The band has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison's exit, although the drummer issued a statement in January saying that he did not quit the group.