Slipknot clarifies if surprise song ‘Arsenal’ is a part of upcoming album

Jim Root, Slipknot guitarist has confirmed that their surprise new single, Arsenal, won’t be on the band’s upcoming eighth album.

The news came about in conversation with a couple of fans on Instagram, later shared on the Slipknot Reddit, one of whom asked if Arsenal was the lead single from their next record.

“No. This was just one that we could finish ‘sooner’ to get out there,” Jim replies.

Another fan asked how they felt about some of the negative comments that Arsenal has received after it dropped on Wednesday, September 9.

“It depends on the commenter, really. I mean, what’s their band doing? And Arsenal was a tune we could quickly get out there while we work on the rest of the record. It’s not really representative of the other tunes,” he explains.

In July, Jim confirmed that Slipknot had chosen Matt Wallace to produce the album and they had around 50 arrangements in the bag, though not all of them were complete.

Talking more about what listeners can expect from the album, he said, “I mean, you know, it’s Slipknot, so we’re going to have a sound," he told the RIDE BYND podcast.

"But at the same time, having Eloy in the band is like such an honor to be able to jam with that guy. And the way we’re approaching this. Like, yeah, I can sit at my computer and I can throw some drum loops up and start writing riffs and layer it, you know, and that’s great. And then I can give it to the band and Corey can put lyrics on it and all that kind of stuff. And you know, it has its place,” Jim further added.

“But the way we’re approaching this, which is similar to the way it was being approached in the beginning, is like a garage band sort of vibe. Like now we’re going to a church, we’re setting up Eloy, I’m setting up, you know, a guitar rig, and we’re just jamming for like two hours,” he mentioned.

“And then out of those two hours, we’ll go back, and as we’re playing, like Clown will be in the room, he’s got headphones on, and he might start jamming with us, or he might just be listening to what we’re doing. And he’ll throw his arm up, or he’ll hit the light, and that’s a cue to our producer like, that’s a part, you know what I mean?”

“I couldn’t tell you what the direction of this next record is going to be. I know I’m writing some of the fastest grindpicking riffs, some of the most melodic, heavy, doomy kind of riffs,” the musician teased.

“A lot of really pretty 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,” Jim Root of Slipknot said of the upcoming music that will be released.