Well, well, well… Looks like the boys in the masks have finally decided to stop hoarding their “secret stash” of songs like it’s the last Twinkie on Earth. After 15 years of keeping fans on the hook harder than a fisherman at dawn, SLIPKNOT’s side project “Look Outside Your Window” is finally getting a vinyl release on Record Store Day (April 18). Because nothing says “we value our fans” quite like making them wait until the cows come home, the chickens roost, AND the pigs fly.
For those of you who haven’t been religiously following every breadcrumb these masked marauders have dropped over the years (what’s wrong with you?), this project was apparently created during the “All Hope Is Gone” sessions when the band decided to take a little psychedelic detour. According to percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, he, Corey Taylor, Jim Root, and Sid Wilson basically said, “Hey, this SLIPKNOT stuff is cool and all, but what if we made something that sounds like RADIOHEAD’s distant cousin who went to art school?” And thus, “Look Outside Your Window” was born.
Now, let’s talk about this glorious 10-track masterpiece that’s been sitting in some vault gathering dust like your grandmother’s fine china. With song titles like “Moth,” “Dirge,” and “Toad,” you just KNOW this is going to be a wild ride. And who could forget “U Can’t Stop This”? Because apparently, the band needed to remind us that, yes, they can in fact stop this… by not releasing it for 15 years.
The band describes the project as being created “in a house on a farm in the middle of nowhere,” where they “wondered about what, or who, might be lurking outside.” Spoiler alert: it was probably just Corey Taylor’s ego, which is known to wander off on its own occasionally.
When asked about the project in previous interviews, Crahan has been about as helpful as a GPS with no signal. He’s claimed it’s “an amazing body of work” and “one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life,” but then immediately followed up with “we wouldn’t want SLIPKNOT to hurt ‘Look Outside Your Window,’ and we wouldn’t want ‘Look Outside Your Window’ to be a little irritation to SLIPKNOT.” Well, which is it, Shawn? Are you proud of it or are you treating it like the red-headed stepchild of the SLIPKNOT family?
And let’s not forget Corey Taylor’s description of the material as “experimental,” “super vibey,” and “super melodic.” Because when I think of SLIPKNOT, I definitely think “super vibey.” Nothing says heavy metal quite like vibey, right?
The real kicker here is that one of the songs, “‘Til We Die,” actually DID see the light of day on the digipak of “All Hope Is Gone.” So it’s not even like this is completely unreleased material. It’s like finding out that the “secret menu” at your favorite restaurant is just the regular menu with a fancy name.
But fear not, dear fans! According to Crahan, this project has been “mixed. It’s been mastered. It’s ready to go.” So why the long wait? Well, apparently, it’s all about “representation” and making sure it doesn’t “affect anybody negative.” Because God forbid a band release music that might make someone feel a negative emotion. That’s just not what music is for, right?
In conclusion, after 15 years of buildup, speculation, and teasing, SLIPKNOT fans can finally rejoice in the fact that they’ll be able to spend their hard-earned money on a limited edition vinyl release of songs that were recorded during a time when the band was presumably too busy arguing with each other to focus on their main project. It’s not a cash grab at all – it’s ART, people! Beautiful, psychedelic, RADIOHEAD-esque art that we’ve all been desperately waiting for since 2008.
So mark your calendars for April 18, folks. It’s going to be a wild ride of introspection, experimentation, and probably a lot of head-scratching as fans try to figure out why they’ve been waiting 15 years for this. But hey, at least we finally get to “Look Outside Your Window,” right? Just don’t expect to see anything too shocking out there – it’s probably just SLIPKNOT, still trying to figure out how to release music in a timely manner.
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
