Slipknot guitarist Jim Root has opened up about the band’s upcoming eighth studio album. He shared candid details about the creative process and a bold new sonic direction in an appearance on the RIDE BYND podcast.
Root revealed that the band has already stockpiled at least 50 song ideas. The sessions have been described as highly organic and collaborative. He spoke at length about how the new material is shaping up — and why it feels unlike anything Slipknot has done before.
“We’ll jam for like an hour and a half, two hours, and we might get four song ideas out of that and then we just spend time arranging, and it’s so organic and it’s so real. It’s almost frightening,” Root said. “This is the closest I’ve heard to the music that I can hear in my head that I can’t get out that I’ve ever been. And it’s exciting. And it’s like breathing a new life into wanting to create.”
Root went on to describe the emotional impact of hearing the new recordings come together. He noted a sense of both novelty and deep familiarity in the sound.
“There’s times where we just kind of sit back and we’re listening to what I just worked on and, I’m just like, Wow this is wild. This sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Yet there’s a familiarity to it that feels like I’ve been listening to it my whole life and it’s just so organic. It’s just Slipknot music,” he said.
He also gave a glimpse into the range of styles being explored on the new record. The material spans everything from aggressive riffing to atmospheric and experimental territory.
“I couldn’t tell you… I know I’m writing some of the fastest like grindpicking riffs, some of the most melodic, like heavy, like doomy kind of riffs. A lot of like really pretty, you know just beautiful like clean interludes and things like that that are finding their way into these songs. A lot of just experimental – I don’t want to say Pink Floyd – but maybe somewhere in that in that wheelhouse,” Root continued.
The new album marks a significant turning point for the band on multiple fronts. The details emerging from the sessions paint a picture of a group operating with renewed purpose and creative freedom.
The record is being produced by Matt Wallace, best known for his landmark work with Faith No More. The sessions are taking place in a church, a setting that appears to be feeding the raw, atmospheric quality Root describes in the new material. The creative core driving the jams consists of Root, drummer Eloy Casagrande, and percussionist Pfaff, with Clown taking charge of arranging the ideas that emerge from those sessions. Root was careful to clarify that while at least 50 arrangements exist, not all of them are fully formed songs yet — “I’m not saying they’re all full songs and they all need work,” he noted.
This will be the first Slipknot album to feature Casagrande, who joined the band in 2024. It is also the band’s first record since completing their long-standing deal with Roadrunner Records, leaving Slipknot currently unsigned and free from any label-imposed timeline or commercial pressure.
Root has described the approach in the studio as deliberately raw, aiming to recapture the garage band energy of the band’s early days. That intentional roughness, combined with the experimental range he has outlined, suggests the eighth album could represent the most adventurous creative leap of Slipknot’s career. The band also released the long-awaited track Look Outside Your Window on Record Store Day 2026, a song originally recorded during the All Hope Is Gone sessions, giving fans a taste of archival material while the new record takes shape.
No release date has been confirmed. With the band unsigned, the timeline remains open-ended. Root has expressed optimism about putting out one or two singles within the next six months, which could offer the first real preview of where Slipknot is headed. The full album will take considerably more time — but the creative momentum Root describes suggests the wait may well be worth it.
Source: RIDE BYND Podcast
