Back in 2013 Stone Sour released not one, but two career-defining albums. ‘House of Gold and Bones I & II’ were completely new territory for the band. Fronted by one of the most enthused people in rock, Corey Taylor, as the winds from these dual releases died down, they soon discovered they’d reached a point where they could pretty much do whatever they wanted - which is where ‘Hydrograd’ comes into play. Stone Sour’s sixth release is one that stands on its own, or as Corey exclaims: “This album was like... death to dead music!” The album’s second track, ‘Taipei Person / Allah Tea’, holds no qualms in absolutely obliterating listeners. “That song kind of sets the tone. It’s an anthem; it’s almost like our Elton John ‘I’m Still Standing’!” Corey laughs. While it may seem like serious business on the surface, really the overall idea is just to have fun. “It’s us drawing the line in the sand and going, ‘We’re still here getting stronger, you can take your best shots at us, but it’s not going to dent the armour, we’re killing it’. “That song, in particular, is such a good barnburner, just stormer. My favourite line from that is ‘We’re running out of road / but I’m still doing 75’. It’s like, where are you heading? Are you heading to the cliff, the wall? It’s cool because it’s kind of us. We’re trying to find a way to define what we are as a band, and the only term we’ve been comfortable with is just Stone Sour. We’re so many different types of bands in one, and we refuse to settle, we refuse to compromise, we refuse to be lumped into a category. It’s a good song that sums us up, for me. It’s our way of saying we’re here and we’re not going anywhere.”
"You can take your best shots at us, but it's not going to dent the armour."
Corey and guitarist and co-founder Josh Rand, who have known each other since they were fifteen, have lasted Stone Sour’s nearly twenty-year timeline. They’ve weathered lineup changes and various successes, as well as the expectations cast upon them, which Corey addresses. “We’ve been fighting against that our whole career, people look at us like we’re crazy with the stuff that we do. We are going to show you what live music feels like and sounds like, and can make you feel again. That’s what I’m most proud of, the fact we’ve been able to marry that kind of energy, and also with the fact that we’re fuckin’ really good at what we do, and we write really good songs,” he finishes with a burst of sarcasm. “What a fuckin’ concept, you know?” Josh adds: “I feel like we’ve always done that since the beginning. Go back to the first album [2002’s ‘Stone Sour’], and you have ‘Get Inside’ and ‘Bother’. Those are totally different from one another. We constantly expand as far as what this band can do. We’re just fans of music, so slowly over time, we mature as listeners and become more interested in different styles.” Their tenure means they’ve developed a thicker skin than most, allowing Stone Sour to not care about impressing the masses. It’s a right they’ve more than earned. “Y’know the cool thing when you stop standing on what people expect,” starts Corey, “is that you start to get cool with the fact it’s like, ‘Hey we can do whatever the hell we want, so let’s stop caring about any of that bullshit’!” Backing him up through laughter, Josh says: “I guess from that standpoint we’re very fortunate to be old!” “[If] you sit there bitching about the old, you’re just spinning your wheels in the mud and you’re not doing anything, and before you know it, your moment’s gone.” With a finger snap for the ages, Corey explains. “For us, it’s about just getting on with it, this what we want to do. I’m not going to go back to doing dishes or slogging porn; I’m making music for the rest of my life.” He pauses before roaring with laughter. “Not gonna lie though, slinging porn is a pretty good gig.” All joking aside, Corey continues: “Honestly though, I’m not going to dog anyone about complaining [about] the way it is. It’s up and down. Today I’m not too bothered; tomorrow I might be furious. It is what it is. This is music, man, if you’re not into it, don’t play it, straight up.”