From 2000: GW explores the world of Slipknot, where concerts are war zones and riffs can kill.

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After the music is completed, Taylor works on lyrics. Often, they suggest the perspective of someone scarred by life, yet looking for a way to heal: "Insane/Am I the only muthafucker with a brain/I'm hearing voices but all they do is complain," Taylor sings in "Eyeless," while in "Purity" he commands, "Put me in a homemade cellar/Put me in a hole for shelter/Someone hear me please, all I see is hate/I can hardly breathe and I can hardly take it."

"I don't talk about a lot of stuff except through my lyrics," Taylor sighs. "They come from a place I don't really like to go. But I do go there, every night we play. And because I do, I don't walk into a McDonald's with a machine gun and mow down a bunch of people. Once I take the stage -- I don't care if it's the first time or the thousandth -- my heart is lifted and all the pain goes away."

Now, as Slipknot prepares to enter the studio again, its members agree that they have to up the ante. There's no room for passivity or complacency in Slipknot's world view. "If anything," says Thomson, "this album is going to be even harder, even more technical than the last. The first time, we knew that we had to win fans, to prove that we had what it takes. For this album, it's about staying around. It's showing that we're no fluke."

"I want everyone who hears this next album to say to themselves, 'Jesus Christ, that really bothers me,'" says Taylor. "I want it to be so profound and so justified that people will shut their fucking mouths forever about the sophomore jinx -- to us, that's just another sacred cow to kick in the face.

"No other band is stepping up and making music a priority. So we have to go and do it. If we ever had a message, it would be that the music is first. Because you can't stop this -- it's begun. It's bigger than us. And it's out of our hands."

Need more Slipknot? Check out Revolver Presents: The Book of Slipknot, available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

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