Slipknot percussionist Shawn ‘The Clown’ Crahan recently spoke with the Alternative Press, who asked for his opinion on other world-renowned clowns. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Pennywise

“Pennywise: only Tim Curry,” says Crahan, comparing Curry’s classic ’90s clown-tagonist to this year’s film portrayal by Bill Skarsgård. “It’s all about the human that’s behind the clown. So, the first is Mr. Curry. He’s too much; he’s just perfect. I haven’t seen the new one yet—I haven’t even seen any of the trailers—but we’ll see how that does. We’ll see if the thought process and the performance happens.”

Ronald McDonald

“Ronald McDonald? We gotta be careful what we say about Ronald,” Crahan says. “He wears the crown, whether we like it or not. Over five billion served! You gotta eat to live. And we’re eating his food… we don’t know what’s in it, we just know we like it. That clown there, that’s a serious clown because he’s backed by money. It’s corporate. You gotta kinda bow to that clown; that clown will fuck you up.”

Read the complete interview here.

Crahan recently spoke with NME and revealed the band's plans for their upcoming sixth album. Following is an excerpt from the story.

Clown: "We’re not going to wait around for Corey Taylor to say that he’s ready, no one’s going to wait for me to finish directing a movie, the same thing goes if someone wants to go out on tour with someone else. Every three or four months we’ve been getting together and we’ve been writing for up to 30 days. Currently, we have about 27 pieces of work – about seven or eight are completed. They’re not completed songs, that’s far from the truth. That’s where people start fighting over Corey Taylor not being there or Jim wanting to do something else. We as artists have demanded that we get together every three or four months and blow our brains out with art. We’ve been trying to create as much art as possible."

"We’ll be getting together in September. Corey Taylor is doing his thing right now with Stone Sour, and when he’s done, he’ll need a little time off. He’s always done that. Then he’ll be right back in it, writing Slipknot songs and lyrics. A lot of us are meeting up in September to start working on those 27 pieces of music and we’re going to add to that. Our goal is to get to somewhere where it feels like we could have a double album. Whether or not we’ll get to that, I have no idea. It’s almost an impossible thing to arrive at because you have to have so much music and pick what’s right. But I would like to have a double album and I would like to have a concept album. I’ve been speaking to Corey and Jim and we’re not just going to ‘do it’, we’re not going to be contrived. It has to be right, it has to work for all of us."

Read the complete story here.

Slipknot. A genuine sonic phenomenon, a nine-piece force of nature and one of heavy music’s most important, recognizable, uncompromising and creatively ingenious bands. Yet to their millions of fans across the world, affectionately known as ‘maggots’, Slipknot aren’t just a musical entity, they’re also a counterculture and a way of life. Now the incendiary live show for their current .5: The Gray Chapter album cycle is captured on DVD/Blu-ray and set for release on October 20th via Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Shot in high definition and directed by Slipknot’s own M. Shawn Crahan, aka “Clown”, Day Of The Gusano documents the Iowa band’s long-awaited and first ever show in Mexico City in December 2015 and will be released on DVD+CD and Blu-ray+CD formats, as well as special gatefold deluxe vinyl/DVD and CD/2DVD packages. You can pre-order your copy and get full information here. Check out a new trailer video below.

Talking about Day Of The Gusano, Clown tells us, "Slipknot still has dreams for itself. Finally playing Mexico was one of them. It's been a surreal life of rock and roll for Slipknot and the fact that the dreams still go on for us is simply incredible. Thank you.” Guitarist Jim Root continues, “We had such a great time at Knotfest Mexico... Not only with all the friends and bands that were there, but with the fans and the crowd we had to document it with. Now we get to share it with the world.”

Day Of The Gusano tracklisting:

“Sarcastrophe”
“The Heretic Anthem”
“Psychosocial”
“The Devil In I”
“Me Inside”
“Vermilion”
“Wait And Bleed”
“Prosthetics”
“Before I Forget”
“Eeyore”
“Duality”
“Custer”
“Spit It Out”

“Metabolic / 742617000027”
“Sic”
“People = Shit”
“Surfacing / Til We Die”