Jim Root has clarified one thing about Slipknot‘s new song “Arsenal”: it’s not going to appear on their next album.
A user took a screenshot of a few Instagram exchanges between Root and fans yesterday (Sept. 9) and shared it to the Slipknot Reddit page. In the first dialogue, the fan mentioned they’d seen a lot of negative comments about “Arsenal” and asked if the criticism upsets him.
“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,” Root replied.
The next comment asked whether “Arsenal” will appear on Slipknot’s next album, to which the guitarist responded, “No. This was just one that we could finish ‘sooner’ to get out there.”
This wouldn’t be the first time Slipknot released a standalone single between albums. The group surprise released “All Out Life” in 2018, a little less than a year before We Are Not Your Kind came out. They also released the one off track “Bone Church” in 2023, several months after The End, So Far came out.
See Root’s comments below.
What Post Were the Comments Made On?
It’s unclear which of Root’s posts the aforementioned exchanges were made on as his Instagram has since been wiped. Only one image remains and it was apparently uploaded in 2012. However, the caption contains the lyrics to “Arsenal” and shows that it was edited sometime today, but the comments for the post are currently disabled.
READ MORE: Are Slipknot an 8-Piece Band Now?
Another fan on Reddit pointed out that Root also changed his Instagram profile picture to an older photo of himself.
Shawn “Clown” Crahan‘s Instagram has seemingly been wiped too, though his only remaining photo was uploaded about seven weeks ago.
What Do We Know About Slipknot’s Next Album?
We don’t currently know much about the follow-up to The End, So Far other than who’s producing it.
Root revealed in July that they’ve been working with Matt Wallace on the record and had “at least like 50 arrangements” at the time. He shared a photo from inside the studio on his Instagram story earlier this week with the caption “tracking happening” [via The PRP], so maybe we’ll have some more updates soon.
In the meantime, check out how we’ve ranked every other Slipknot song (excluding “Arsenal”) in the gallery below.
Every Slipknot Song Ranked
Push your fingers into your eyes.
Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff