Here is the current onsale info:

Nov 5 Moscow, Russia - Stadium Olimpijski (ONSALE NOW!)
Presale: Click here to buy tickets!

Nov 18 Milan, Italy - Palasharp (ONSALE TUESDAY!)

Nov 20 Amsterdam, Holland - HMH (ONSALE JUNE 14!)

Nov 21 Paris, France - Zenith (ONSALE TUESDAY!)

Dec 14 Antwerp, Belgium - Lotto Arena (ONSALE NOW!)
Presale: Click here to buy tickets!

Dec 15 Luxemburg - Rockhal (ONSALE NOW!)
Presale: Click here to buy tickets!

Hard rock enigma SlipKnoT has posted the 8th teaser photograph from a recent photo shoot on the splash page of its web site. Check out this teaser picture here:

SLIPKNOT has issued the following update:

"SLIPKNOT is proud to announce their triumphant return to Europe beginning this November. SLIPKNOT will headline throughout Europe, with MACHINE HEAD and CHILDREN OF BODOM in tow, making for a truly brutal evening of music! This tour also marks the band's first trip to Russia, where they will be headlining Olympic Stadium!"

Commented SLIPKNOT vocalist Corey Taylor: "It's been a long time coming... I know the European fans have been waiting for this for a very long time. We are breathlessly waiting, as well. We cannot wait to throw down with them!"

The tour dates are as follows:

Nov. 05 - Moscow, Russia - Stadium Olimpijski
Nov. 07 - Helsinki, Finland - Old Ice Hall
Nov. 08 - Tampere, Finland - Ice Hall
Nov. 10 - Oslo, Norway - Spektrum
Nov. 12 - Stockholm, Sweden - Hovet
Nov. 13 - Copenhagen, Denmark - KB Hallen
Nov. 15 - Berlin, Germany - Arena Treptow
Nov. 17 - Winterthur, Switzerland - Eishalle Deutweg
Nov. 18 - Milan, Italy - Palasharp
Nov. 20 - Amsterdam, Holland - HMH
Nov. 21 - Paris, France - Zenith
Nov. 22 - Paris, France - Zenith
Dec. 14 - Antwerp, Belgium - Lotto Arena
Dec. 15 - Luxemburg - Rockhal

Additional dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

SlipKnoT's Joey Jordsion has been named the #5 drummer in the "Metal" category in Modern Drummer magazine's 2008 Readers' Poll. The Readers' Poll results appear in the July 2008 issue of the magazine, available on newsstands now.

2008 Modern Drummer magazine readers' poll results in the "Metal" category:

01. Tomas Haake (MESHUGGAH)
02. Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL)
03. Chris Adler (LAMB OF GOD)
04. Derek Roddy (ex-HATE ETERNAL)
05. Joey Jordison (SLIPKNOT)

Check out these "All Hope is Gone" banners from Roadrunner Records website. Possible name for new SlipKnoT album? I don't know but it sounds killer.. :)

This summer, Des Moines, Iowa's own Slipknot — along with Disturbed, Mastodon, DragonForce, Machine Head, the Red Chord, Suicide Silence and a handful of others — will be taking part in the inaugural run of Warped Tour mastermind Kevin Lyman's Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival (otherwise known as the tour that effectively immobilized Sharon Osbourne's long-running Ozzfest).

But Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan doesn't care what you call Lyman's latest brainchild, so long as you understand that it's not a festival at all — it's a Slipknot tour, plain and simple.

"It's a bunch of bands opening for Slipknot," Crahan told Metal File last week, during a brief break from the studio, where the band is working on its fourth, still-untitled LP, which should arrive in stores by summer's end. "We're headlining, as it should be. Sorry — it's a Slipknot show, kids. We've been gone for two years, and you've all had the chance to do what you're going to do. But now we're back; step in line. That's what's up. We're the DNA that keeps whatever cell this is moving. Period.

"With me, I've been out with a lot of bands, and I don't care," he continued. "We're back, and it just happens to be this thing called the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival. That's cool. But we didn't want them, they wanted us. Everyone wants our f---ing money and our kids. We're playing a show, and a bunch of great bands are playing too. But we're back, so get out of our way. Call it what you will, but we're headlining. It's our show, and we're here to kill you."

And he's not kidding. Crahan said he's keyed up for Slipknot's return to the stage, following two years of hibernation, and promises that this summer, the boys will preview some of the new material they've been working on since early February.

"We're going to cast some magical spells, and you're going to get more than you can choke on," he said. "Slipknot is a philosophy, a way of life. We're a great band, and if you don't know that, I don't know what you know. We've been doing it longer than most bands can, and no one has done it harder than us."

According to Crahan, Slipknot brought an abundance of songs into the studio and is nearing the completion of the effort, under the direction of producer Dave Fortman (Mudvayne, Superjoint Ritual). And while he wouldn't go into detail about the LP (frontman Corey Taylor said in a recent interview with Billboard that the album would "rip your face off"), he scoffed at the suggestion that it's the band's heaviest offering to date.

"I'm not that guy who's going to tell you it's harder," he said. "Harder, to me, doesn't mean anything. I could give a sh-- about hard. Hard means nothing to the Clown. Slipknot is a phenomenon, it's an enigma, and the enigma weighs on your emotions. And the emotions aren't just heavy, they're cerebral, they're surreal and they're on a whole other level. I just know that this album is different than anything we've done."

When asked to elaborate, Clown refused, saying that the music, once it's released, would speak for itself. "Listen, we are the hardest ever," he said. "We blow all bands away. I don't give a f--- who your band is. I've probably played with your band, and you don't show me sh--. So, it's like, is this band heavy? Oh, yeah, we're the heaviest. We're heavy thinkers, heavy hitters, heavy writers and heavy people, but it's emotionally heavy. There's a lot of emotion on this record, and we're all on the same page with our own emotions, so you're finally seeing the kings of all the courts bringing their kingdom's jewels in for one gigantic war."


But Clown did admit that the record sounds more mature than anything they've done previously, because, well, they're all grown up.

"It's a record made by a bunch of f---ing adults, and that's why it's different. Every record should be different," Crahan said. "Our self-titled came out in '98, and the second record, people were thinking maybe we'd give 'em more commerciality, and give in like everybody else does. But instead, we go completely against that, and we made the anti-sophomore record, and we get all the respect for that.

"The third record, we start moving in directions we always wanted to. Basically, on the second record, it was like, 'We're the drug penetrating the vein, and we're on our way to your brain and your heart,' " he continued. "The third record was, 'Now, I'm in your brain. Check out this other sh--. No other band can handle this. No one can fathom what we do. This fourth record was done by a bunch of crazy guys in their 30s. That doesn't mean we're slowing down or not as intense — our brains are different, so we're bringing different emotions, different feelings and different anxieties to the table now. This record is another diagnosis of our insanity.

"No one has done what we have done," he added. "This is a war, man. The sh-- that we do, nine guys trying to f---ing write together, and keep this insanity going? Does anybody take the time to realize that? For me, this is like going to Vietnam, serving your tour and then the government asking you to do another tour because you're a badass. We've got 10 purple hearts, and we're f---ing killers. This isn't your rock and roll; this is our rock and roll."

For Crahan, making the record hasn't been a picnic. The music has taken an emotional toll on him ("This sh--'s real, it hurts, and I've cut myself open and given everything to this record," he said), but he's cool with that — so long as Slipknot's allegiant fans, the Maggots, aren't disappointed with it.

"The reason the fans love us is because they sense and feel something they've never gotten from anybody else — it's loyalty, it's respect and more importantly, they've finally found someone who feels like they feel," he said. "We're not your normal band. We represent something to kids they never gotten from school, or their parents, or other bands. We supply a feeling only Slipknot can supply. We have our own culture, because, we've done this 10 years for you, and 12 years for ourselves.

"We have nine guys, and all nine are different," Crahan went on. "But we're still doing this, so I'm amazed. That's how f---ing badass we are. Some stupid band with three members or four members wants to bellyache to me? Come on, man — this is the 'Knot. This is nine guys, an assault on the senses, a physical war through music, and it's going to be force-fed down your throat, and it will turn your insides out. It's been designed to destroy you."

SLIPKNOT, CARCASS and DRAGONFORCE are among the confirmed bands for the Loudpark 08 festival, set to take place October 18-19 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City, Japan.

The festival billing is shaping up as follows:

SLIPKNOT
CARCASS
SONATA ARCTICA
DRAGONFORCE
APOCALYPTICA
OBITUARY
MESHUGGAH
SECRET & WHISPER

More bands will be announced soon.

SLIPKNOT percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan recently told Radio Iowa that the music industry has changed so bands now make their money from concerts rather than albums.

Crahan said. "I'll just be honest. I've never made a dollar on a record. We make our money on the road."

Crahan's band plays a lot of shows in Europe where the festival scene appears to be much more vibrant. "I think America needs to look toward Europe and see what they're doing because over there they all get crazy and they need to have festivals and they just go and they take, like, weeks off and everybody — it doesn't matter if it's your boss or your mom or whatever — it's festival time," Crahan said. "I've played these festivals and they're more than just music. It's cultural. It's have a drink. Have food. Let's take a break from our job and let's really figure out life and then you come to America and it's all, like, selling buttons and this and that and, you know, it's really difficult."