At the beginning of the year, Slipknot and Stone Sour guitarist Jim Root decided to sit out Stone Sour’s tour to write the next Slipknot album.  While he was ultimately fired from the band, even though he’s still in Slipknot with singer Corey Taylor, it seems like the album’s made progress, as Taylor reported that the album is “98% done.” In an interview with Full Metal Jackie, he stated that information will start to leak out about the new Slipknot album soon, and they’re working on mixing it:

The album is done. Oh yes. I’d say 98 percent done. I’m in the process of heading to the studio to give a listen, see if there’s anything we need to touch up. But yeah, it is very close. The next step is the mix, and we’re going to try to get it out very soon. There will be big announcements soon. Big things to hear, soon. That’s really all I can say about it. I know we’re anything, if not diligent to our plan. The plan is to just slowly but surely get people to lose their minds for the next couple of months with just little stuff here and there leaked.

There’s still no word on who will be playing drums on the album, but if the rumor that Jay Weinberg is the new drummer of Slipknot turns out to be true, that could be intriguing and lead to one of the best crossovers ever.