Slipknot‘s Eloy Casagrande has revealed that his mask is a tribute to the culture of his home country Brazil, as well as to the late Joey Jordison.
Casagrande plays in an all-white mask – similar to Jordison’s classic mask – which has a bullet wound in the forehead.
“The mask was something I did with Clown,” he said on the Modern Drummer podcast. “The first thing he asked me at the beginning is like, ‘Can we have a white mask for you?’ The first thing to bring back Joey’s memory. Respect his legacy. And I made the suggestion to have, like, these black lines to remember the Brazilian indigenous people.
“You know, so it brings with me the Brazilian people, the Brazilian culture. But my expression, my face expression, this was designed by Clown. He was watching me playing without the mask and he said, like, ‘That’s the way you look when you’re playing Slipknot music. So we’re going to put that in your mask.’”
He later told the story of what inspired the bullet hole. “I came with the idea of the bullet hole. Two years ago, I was robbed in São Paulo. I was walking in my neighbourhood, it was 9am, I was going to the gym, and two guys on motorcycles stopped me and they put a gun to my head and they asked me to give them my phone and my backpack. That was something that somehow changed a lot inside me. And he decided to not shoot. So I was lucky.
“It’s also from the philosophy that… gives like the feeling of, you’re going to like me, you’re going to love what I do, you’re going to hate what I do, but I have nothing to lose. I’m already dead. That’s a way of feeling that gives me some kind of freedom when I go on stage. It’s very inspirational as well.”
Jordison was a founding member of Slipknot and was part of the band until 2013. He passed away in July 2021 at the age of 46. He was replaced by Jay Weinberg until he departed the band in 2023. Casagrande left Sepultura not long before they split up in order to take the vacant slot behind the kit.
Meanwhile, Slipknot’s custom percussionist Clown recently spoke to NME about The Nine’s plans for new material and the long-mooted ‘lost’ album ‘Look Outside Your Window’.
“You’ve gotta realise, we’ve been on tour for a while and we’re slowly winding down from the long runs. We have some shows next year, then it’s back to healing ourselves from all the work we’ve done and drawing up the next material. Corey [Taylor, frontman] already has ideas and is writing lyrics that he sends over. It doesn’t mean it’s set in stone and it doesn’t mean it’s done by any means. We don’t know where any of these directions are headed right now, but I do know that there will be a lot [of ideas] brought to the table at the start of every day.
“It feels reminiscent of how it all started in the first place. It’s better than I could ever want and I think everyone would say it feels like a good time. It’s fun, like how it was when we were younger and writing music for ourselves. It’s all thumbs up.”
When asked when ‘Look Outside Your Window’ might finally surface, he said: “I did say it was going to be in 2024, and I gave it the best fight that I could to make it this year. What I can tell you is that I showed Corey the final artwork two days ago. It is happening, but unfortunately, because of Christmas and New Year and the way business works, I can’t slide it in this year. But you have my word, it’s out of my hands now. It’s being moved on, the money has been spent and there is a plan. The management has it and it is coming out.
“I’m really pleased about it and happy to finally be rid of it! What’s nice though is that it isn’t a hype thing, it’s just something we did while we were doing other Slipknot albums. It was a very honest action to make music that wasn’t Slipknot, but utilised the skills of guys with no rules. I don’t know if it’s ‘good’, but I know that I love it. I make music for myself, but I hope that the people who waited and waited and waited think it was worth it too.”
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