Slipknot have just shared some big news on social media, that they have parted ways with long-time member Craig Jones. Member 133 joined in 1996 following the Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.. demo and is known for his iconic sampling, keyboards and guitar playing in the band. After Joey Jordison's departure, Jones was the second-longest serving member in one of the biggest metal bands in the world.
We are still learning why the band have parted ways with Jones, and the news comes only days after Chris Fehn has started opening up about why he left the band, and his motivation to stick around for the fans, for all the years that followed.
It also comes only hours after Clown announced he's needed to take some time away from the band on tour in order to be with family. It's seemingly quite a disruptive time for Slipknot, just months after the highly successful Knotfest Australia and in the midst of some massive touring overseas.
Update: As the day progressed, Slipknot removed the post announcing Jones' departure and added the post below, supposedly sharing the visual of a replacement member:
https://www.facebook.com/slipknot/posts/pfbid0M1rGX1U19twCU6cPHkgRgactUykAj4uHeqWmEcGrdeL8GgBM3xjVc6rRoP3g7AEKl
The band then continued the cryptic social media trail ahead of their Download UK performance. As we are left scratching our heads, a teaser video directed fans to website youcantkillme.com. Once on the site, we are greeted with a music video to a brand new song titled 'Death March'.
The track is accompanied by an Adderall EP, with three variations of the original track from previous album The End, So Far. 'Death March' alongside new tracks 'Red or Redder' and 'Hard to Be Here' are slower instrumentals with a softer sound and similar qualities to that of the original 'Adderall'.
lineup changes and new EP seem to allude to something bigger, but who can predict what comes next? The band are certainly keeping everyone on their toes right now as they push forward into the next era of the almighty Slipknot.
Words by Ricky Aarons (@rickysaul90)
