“Arsenal” landed this week with a video from M. SHAWN “CLOWN” CRAHAN, and it’s the first SLIPKNOT release after a major lineup shift: SID WILSON and CRAIG JONES are gone, JAY WEINBERG is out, and ELOY CASAGRANDE is now on drums. This is also the band’s first move on their own label, (SIC)EST RECORDS, after closing the long chapter with ROADRUNNER that shaped most of their career.
Reactions to the single have been split. Some longtime listeners hear “Arsenal” as a left turn, especially in the chorus where the repeated “let’s go” feels more blunt than usual. Root addressed the criticism directly, confirming in a now-deleted Instagram comment that this track was always meant as a standalone, not a preview of the album. COREY TAYLOR, on the other hand, told BBC RADIO 1’s JACK SAUNDERS that the song captures the full SLIPKNOT spectrum: bursts of energy, then a drop that pulls the floor out from under you.
“Arsenal” premiered as BBC RADIO 1’s Hottest Record, following last year’s “Bone Church” — a song that sat unfinished for nearly a decade before finally surfacing. The next full-length will be the first since “The End, So Far” in 2022, and the first to reflect the new lineup after JONES and WEINBERG’s departures.
Last autumn, SLIPKNOT sold their back catalog to HARBOURVIEW EQUITY PARTNERS. The deal covers publishing and masters through now, but future releases — including “Arsenal” — are outside that agreement.
[VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/embed/s1s2E6hXU_M]
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