SLIPKNOT have left their hometown of Des Moines, Iowa for Los Angeles, California to begin work on their long-awaited third full-length album, tentatively due in early 2004 through Roadrunner Records. Rick Rubin (SYSTEM OF A DOWN, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, SLAYER) is expected to produce the effort, the material for which is being described by frontman Corey Taylor as “fucking killer.” “Well, once again I have to leave my family and hometown to head west, to the Mecca of Malfeasance, L.A., to start work on the third installment of the SLIPKNOT saga,” Taylor writes in a posting on the unofficial Stone Sour message board stonesourboard.com. “I’m leaving with reservations and a mix of anticipation and cynicism. STONE SOUR has a become a blasting target for the press, who labels us a ‘post-grunge basement band’ and ‘unimaginative dog-shite’ (shite thrown in for our British fans). “That’s funnyí¢ä‰åŒ_ Coulda sworn people liked us… at least that’s what the album sales said. “Nevertheless, the same will happen with SLIPKNOT, who the press have been braying about since STONE SOUR’s last tour, but I don’t really care anymore. People are going to bag on whatever I do regardless, because critics try to destroy the one thing they themselves cannot do. If you like my music, thank you í¢ä‰åäó if you don’t, thanks for sending a little more negativity into the world. “I’m really looking forward to the new album with SLIPKNOT. A lot seems to have changed with the band and the material is fucking killer. We are working on another STONE SOUR album as well, and it is amazing as well. So I want to thank everyone who has stuck by both projects for all these years. Sometimes we really don’t know what’s going on, sometimes we don’t get along, and sometimes we stick our foot in our mouth (or at least I do), but through it all, you have shown us that, with both bands, it is you who allow us to do this, and we thank you. “Gotta go í¢ä‰åäó the IBM is wailing. “Oh, and BLABBERMOUTH, if I spelled anything wrong on this, please correct it when you eventually reprint it. “Thank you. “Corey Taylor” thanks to Blabbermouth