Slipknot Are “Cooking,” Says Eloy Casagrande

Slipknot drummer Eloy Casagrande has broken cover with a welcome status update: the Iowan institution is actively trading ideas and shaping new songs.

Speaking with Drummer’s Review, Casagrande said the band has been “working on some new ideas,” adding: “We keep exchanging guitar riffs, drum beats, so we are always doing something… We have a lot of material right now, we just have to sit and put everything together, start jamming, and it’s happening… New material is coming for sure.”

If and when a record lands, it’ll be the first Slipknot release with Casagrande behind the kit after he replaced Jay Weinberg early last year, an appointment fans have largely embraced thanks to Eloy’s speed and attack.

What it might sound like

Back in May, guitarist Jim Root said he had “six finished arrangements” in the chamber and wanted to “revisit the raw energy of how those first two records were recorded.” That points to a leaner, nastier approach, less gloss, more grit, compared to the broad palette of recent years.

There’s also the still shelved ‘Long May You Die’, first acknowledged in May 2024 as the band’s initial studio cut with Casagrande, they’ve never committed to releasing it, but its existence confirms writing sessions have been real, not just message board myth.

A busy quarter century

Slipknot capped their 25th anniversary run by announcing a deluxe reissue of the 1999 self titled debut, loaded with demos, Indigo Ranch mixes and live cuts, an archival deep dive that doubles as a mood board for Root’s “raw energy” mission statement.

The band’s last full length, ‘The End, So Far’ (2022), split critics, praised for scope by some, called uneven by others, but it proved the engine’s still mean. If Casagrande’s update and Root’s brief hold, Slipknot’s eighth could skew closer to the suffocating intensity of ‘Slipknot’ and ‘Iowa’ than the sprawl of the 2020s. For now, the message from camp ‘Knot is simple, they’re cooking. Watch this space!