Paul Gray is the Grammy Award-winning bassist of SLIPKNOT. His crushing technique and songwriting skills have made him one of metal's most influential bass players.

In his IMV "Behind the Player" DVD, Gray gives an intimate behind-the scenes look at his life as a professional musician — including rare photos and video footage. Gray then gives in-depth lessons for how to play "Duality" and "Surfacing" by SLIPKNOT on bass and jams the tracks with STONE SOUR drummer Roy Mayorga.

"Video Tab" shows exactly how Gray plays the two tracks. The video-game-style animated tablature is similar to Guitar Hero, but shows how to play the tracks for real.

Get your copy at Guitar Center or www.IMVdvd.com on November 1, 2008.

A trailer for Paul Gray's IMV "Behind the Player" DVD can be viewed here:

In a brand new interview with Australia's The Age, SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has described the band's shows as "out-and-out war." He said, "It really taxes the body and spirit after a while. This isn't just four dudes rolling in their street clothes. This is a production, a battle and a celebration. There are so many moods that go into this, sometimes you can get lost in the shuffle. We really rely on each other. If one of us is having a bad day, we know. We say: 'Guys I need you tonight'. And they got ya."

On the positive message of the band's music:

"I've always tried to blend the darkness with a big dose of positivity. With our (dark) imagery, it obviously get lost a bit. But for me it's always been about giving people a reason to live rather than a reason to give up."

On the band's stage show:

"There's obviously a genre of theatrical rock, but for us it's just a piece of the puzzle. It's always been about the content and why we wear what we do. There's a lot more art than there is shock. KISS and ALICE COOPER really broke down a lot of barriers, but we're different to them. I've always felt that we were like if PINK FLOYD started a metal band. I doubt you're gonna see SLIPKNOT shoot cereal anytime soon — KISS really have become the Disney of rock."

According to Metalist magazine, SLIPKNOT's previously announced November 2, 2008 concert at at Hangar No. 1 at the Fair, Trade and Convention Center in Tel-Aviv, Israel has been cancelled by the band "as a result of sudden personal and family conflicts." No further details are currently available.

So here it is! Brand new SlipKnoT video for their hit single "Dead Memories" that comes from the band’s most recent album All Hope is Gone is here and you can watch it right now:



“Dead Memories" - The song comes from the band’s most recent album All Hope is Gone and was written by singer Corey Taylor about the painful collapse of his marriage to his ex-wife. The video was co-directed by Paul Brown and band percussionist Clown.

Commentary by Shawn “Clown” Crahan:
I’ve been doing directing and writing treatments and working with most of our videos from the beginning. I’ve always been the guy. It’s not that I wanted to be a director or write scripts or treatments. It’s just that I’m not interested in other people’s ideas. I’m not at that time of my career where I’m worrying about breaking crazy artists to come in and mold us as a sculpture for them to further their art. I’ve always been the guy who’s had to force my opinion, and that’s how you get to co-direct. This video, I’m co-directing with Paul Brown, and he decided to finally be the guy after 12 years to look me in the eye and say, “You’re gonna co-direct the video. You’re gonna do filming because you’re great at it.”

And the treatment is my idea. And it was a very serious time for me because I felt that Slipknot had to move in a different way than what we’ve been doing. I just took a good look at “Dead Memories,” and it’s a really personal song for Corey, so I got together with him and told him my idea of having all these rooms in the video. I had him pick what each room would be, and basically, Paul Brown mentored over me and forced me into this.

For me, doing this is huge. I can almost smell and taste what I see and little things, little edits make me weep. So it’s an honor to be able to co-direct a video this and I don’t think people have seen anything like this from us. It’s out there, man. It’s really out there because it’s time. I don’t want to waste time anymore on people’s fundamental ideas on what they think Slipknot is. We’ve given enough. We’ve given everybody a little bit of what they’ve needed to market us, sell us, present us. We’ve done that because we want to impact the entire world.

And this is a very expensive video. It’s actually a short film, and most people thought we were going to bite off way too much, and we did, but that’s the way we like it. And the sole purpose of this short film was to be an experiment to help Corey finalize “Dead Memories.” I took it that deep. He thought he finalized ideas by laying lyrics down to a musical score. Well, guess what? I’m gonna dig it all back up and force you into eight categories of this insanity in your mind. And it’s art, so who knows what it means? Who cares what it means? Just let it mean what it means to you.

The second video from Slipknot’s All Hope is Gone, “Dead Memories,” will premiere on HeadbangersBlog.com and MTV2 on October 25. The clip was co-directed by Paul Brown and percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan.

“It’s actually a short film,” Crahan says. “This is a very expensive video and most people thought we were going to bite off way too much, and we did, but that’s the way we like it.”

A brand new interview with SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor conducted by David Farrier of New Zealand's TV3 can be viewed below.

SLIPKNOT scored an instant No. 1 on European Top 100 Albums chart with its latest album, "All Hope Is Gone" (Roadrunner), according to Billboard.com. SLIPKNOT's chart-topping European debut followed consecutive No. 2 entries on the aggregate chart for its last two albums, 2004's "Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses)" and "Iowa" in 2001. The new set arrived at No. 1 in Finland and Switzerland, and enjoyed three further No. 2 debuts, in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom, the latter on sales of 49,000.

Clown has signed on to do a weekly column with Headbanger's Blog where he will show some of the photographs he's taken through the years and give a description of them.

"We couldn’t be more thrilled to launch our new weekly feature from Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan during our celebration of the 20th anniversary of “Headbangers Ball.” As you may know, in addition to beating on stuff for the Knot and playing drums for Dirty Little Rabbits, Crahan is also a serious photographer.

When he’s not writing or creating music, he’s frequently manipulating high-tech cameras, Polaroid film, scanners and Photoshop to create images that are both haunting and beautiful. Whether shooting portraits, candids, still-lifes, landscapes or something else entirely, Crahan imbues his shots with his own fears, frustrations and fascinations with sex, death and dreams. Click “more” to view the first picture in our weekly series from Crahan and read his fascinating, bizarre and sometimes disturbing commentary.


Image Copyright - M. Shawn Crahan
It’s basically a self-portrait of an Iowa mask that I wore. Self-portraits, for me, are one of the most fundamental and important aspects of experimenting with my own art. I’ve never really liked the way I look, so I’m always exploring myself. I’ve pretty much analyzed my entire body through photography as a way of cutting myself open and letting a lot things of my fears about myself out. It’s an experiment that I’m doing to get a little bit healthier about the way I feel about who I am.
myself.

This is one of my favorite self-portraits because it was in a very dark place in my life. I had this black mask made and I quite literally only wore it onstage twice for approximately 30 seconds. It just didn’t work. I don’t know if it was the latex or the other materials in it or just the way it felt, but it just wasn’t happening. I explored myself a lot with this particular mask during the Iowa cycle in my basement.

To me, this is basically a really good example of experimenting with oneself through a medium of choice — this choice being photography. So, this is me confronting my fears and it’s pretty heavy for me because it’s always in the mask, or it could be outside of the mask. They really are the same thing.

As far as the image goes, this is a digital photo. I manipulate cameras. I more or less deconstruct them. For example, there’s a film plane in the back of film cameras, and there are all kinds of mechanisms that keep the film down. Well, I’ll take those out so the film’s floating and nothing’s even. This particular picture was done with a lot of glass and layers of things in front. But it’s all liquid and colors. And then basically what I do with a lot of my art is I’ll pull it together after the photo’s done.

There’s always a problem with the depth of reality in photography, especially if you’re going to bring it out into a touchable reality because you want to use inks and paper and they make this vision on the screen look much different. So, I’ll pull these images into something like Photoshop and make the blacks black and the white white. And that’s how you get the reds to pop a little more. After you take the photos, you touch them up. It’s revision. And revision is something that’s well needed.

In fact, I’ve had this photo since 2001 and I’ve revised it a dozen times. I even messed with the brightness and contrast just a little bit yesterday before I sent it just because I’m on a new laptop and the picture has been sitting in a hard drive for a long time, and it’s got a mind of its own. When it showed up yesterday, it had some things to say.

Lionsgate has announced the upcoming soundtrack release to "Punisher: War Zone" from Marvel Comics' latest film adaptation of fictional vigilante and deadly antihero Frank Castle. The lethal motion picture soundtrack features a powerful collection of A-list rockers including the first new music in thre years from ROB ZOMBIE in addition to heart-pounding songs from rock icons such as SEETHER, SLAYER, SLIPKNOT and RISE AGAINST. The fifteen-track album attacks stores on November 25. The film opens nationwide on December 5.Lionsgate has announced the upcoming soundtrack release to "Punisher: War Zone" from Marvel Comics' latest film adaptation of fictional vigilante and deadly antihero Frank Castle. The lethal motion picture soundtrack features a powerful collection of A-list rockers including the first new music in thre years from ROB ZOMBIE in addition to heart-pounding songs from rock icons such as SEETHER, SLAYER, SLIPKNOT and RISE AGAINST. The fifteen-track album attacks stores on November 25. The film opens nationwide on December 5.

"Punisher: War Zone" track listing is as follows:

01. "War Zone" - ROB ZOMBIE
02. "Final Six" - SLAYER
03. "Psychosocial" - SLIPKNOT
04. "Historia Calamitatum" - RISE AGAINST
05. "Fallen" - SEETHER
06. "Bulletproof" - KERLI
07. [To Be Determined - Contest Winner]
08. "The Past Is Proof" - SENSES FAIL
09. "Butterfly Wings" - MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE
10. "Genesis" - JUSTICE
11. "Showdown" - PENDULUM
12. "Refuse" - HATEBREED
13. "Lunatic" - STATIC-X
14. "Days Of Revenge" - RAMALLAH
15. "The Punisher Main Title" - MICHAEL WANDMACHER