Slipknot takes on the internet echo chamber with “The Chapeltown Rag”

Slipknot takes on the internet echo chamber with “The Chapeltown Rag”
Roadrunner Records

It’s been two years since Slipknot delighted fans with new music and, on Friday, the dry spell finally came to an end with their new single, “The Chapeltown Rag.” 

The punishing new single blends frontman Corey Taylor‘s signature growls and wails into a frenetic mash of guitar riffs and punishing drums. 

The masked metallers paint the single around the chaos of misinformation, calling out those who cannot handle the truth and instead turn to a “Scandalous know it all – feedback chamber / Nobody wants the proof – they want a number.”

“All the ligatures are getting tight, like a style / Murder another mouth before the trial / Scalpel and then you scalp em to f***** death / Kills for the other vampires and surrogates / It’s a ploy for attention and evidence / All your f****** monsters are flaws in your common sense,” the band criticizes in the vitriolic lyrics, who close on a warning that “When everything is God online… nothing is.”

The frenetic single is named after the seemingly sleepy West Yorkshire suburb of Chapeltown, which was actually the playground of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the “Yorkshire Ripper,” in the 1970s.  Sutcliffe was the subject of a Netflix documentary that Taylor saw and was inspired to create something around it.

“The Chapeltown Rag” is the first new Slipknot song to follow the band’s 2019 album, We Are Not Your Kind.  They will also perform the song live tonight at their headlining set at Knotfest Los Angeles.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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