Slipknot fans have been sharing their reactions to ‘Look Outside Your Window’, after receiving the lost album early ahead of its release on Record Store Day 2026.
The experimental, “Radiohead vibe” album is arriving on vinyl this Saturday (April 18) as part of this year’s edition of RSD, and is limited to 2,300 copies.
It comes after percussionist Clown (real name Shawn Crahan) told fans late last year to “have faith” that “2026 is the year”. The LP, which was recorded in 2008, has repeatedly been delayed since details of it were revealed around 2019.
Now, a fan on Reddit has claimed to have got their hands on a copy of ‘Look Outside Your Window’ already. They claimed that a local indie vinyl shop in Canada had the special edition of the album in stock a week early.
The user posted an image of the vinyl and said they were “really surprised” by the music on the record. “The songs are better than I thought! If you have some questions, I’ll try to answer them,” they added.
Naturally, fans in the comments section were keen to find out more about the LP. Before answering the many questions put to them, the author of the post shared some notes after their first listen-through
They revealed that Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil makes several appearances on the ‘Look Outside Your Window’, including on the songs ‘Christina’ (which they described as a “monologue”) and ‘Real’.
“Created during a chaotic time in our shared history, the songs were born late at night, in a house on a farm in the middle of nowhere,” they continued. “Peering out through a big picture window, we wondered about what, or who, might be lurking outside. That sense of the unknown seeped into the music itself.
They added: “There were no rules; ideas could come from anywhere: subtle drum loops, bits of organ or abstract guitar noise, even samples of frogs or crickets. Guided by emotion and instinct, we let the sounds themselves point the way.”
The album was recorded 18 years ago by Clown, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson and Jim Root as they simultaneously made 2008’s ‘All Hope Is Gone’. However, only one song from those sessions has been released so far – ‘All Hope Is Gone’ bonus track ‘Til We Die’.
The ‘Look Outside Your Window’ tracklist is:
’11th March’
‘Moth’
‘Dirge’
‘Christina’
‘Is Real’
‘Away’
‘In Reverse’
‘Toad’
‘Juliette’
‘U Can’t Stop This’
Frontman Taylor confirmed the existence of the album in 2019, telling SiriusXM that the record contained “some of my best writing” and “some of my best singing”. Clown would then tell NME in 2020 that the band almost dropped it over Christmas 2019, but ultimately decided against it, so as not to interfere with the release of ‘We Are Not Your Kind’.
After Clown suggested that the album might drop in 2023, Taylor gave a further update to NME that year, telling us that he was partially responsible for the LP’s delays.
“I was talking to Clown about it the other day and he goes, ‘One of the reasons it hasn’t come out is because you keep putting shit out which keeps conflicting with when I want to release it!’,” Taylor explained. “I was like, ‘Fuck dude, why didn’t you tell me?’ He says, ‘Fuck, Taylor – you just got too much shit!’”
But after telling NME that ‘Look Outside Your Window’ would “definitely” arrive in 2024, with Clown adding in a separate interview to NME that the project was mixed and mastered, it ultimately failed to materialise.
Clown explained in late 2024 that the band were still tweaking “tons of incomplete concepts”, while Root joked that he often threatened to leak the record.
At the end of 2024, Clown told NME that “management has [the album] and it’s coming out”, hinting: “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.” He said early the following year: “It’s not Slipknot at all, not even close.”
Last autumn, Slipknot drummer Eloy Casagrande revealed that the band were working on new music. “We are cooking,” he said at the time. “Since I joined the band, we have been working on some new ideas. We keep exchanging guitar riffs, drum beats, so we are always doing something. We had also some jam sessions.”
Record Store Day’s 2026 slate also includes special releases from Blur, Charli XCX, Muse, Suede, David Bowie, The Cure, KPop Demon Hunters, Paramore and many more.
Organisers have also announced new pressings from The Cure, Fleetwood Mac, Primal Scream, Bring Me The Horizon and Sigrid, Divorce, and Kaiser Chiefs for a run of vinyl in support of War Child.
The post Slipknot fans react after receiving ‘Look Outside Your Window’ early ahead of Record Store Day – comparing it to Radiohead and Pink Floyd appeared first on NME.
