By now, you are likely aware that Slipknot are having some legal issues with longtime percussionist Chris Fehn. Fehn's pending litigation against Slipknot claims the band was keeping money from him, setting up corporations that he was not aware of. Taylor has publicly said he and his band are being wrongfully accused.
While Fehn was initially dismissed from the band, the statement has since been pulled from the band's website. Fehn contends that frontman Corey Taylor and founder M. Shawn Crahan, along with their manager Rob Shore, created six separate companies. Fehn is suing for two counts of "breach of fiduciary duty," one count of "breach of implied in fact contract" and one count of "unjust enrichment." We break down the entire lawsuit filing here. Slipknot's response in the court can be found here. Now that you're all caught up, obviously Slipknot posted a new song today and it had nine members in the song. So who is the new guy?
It seems pretty apparent from the stills we posted of the new guy's mask, that it is likely not Chris Fehn. For reference, here's Fehn's last mask. All of his masks had a Pinocchio nose, and this one obviously does not.
We don't really have much in the way of hints of the new member's identity. Some online sleuths are assuming it might still be Fehn based on the number on the jumpsuit of the percussionist. Fehn's number in the band is #3, but if you zoom in close, it looks like that number is 8 (which is oddly Corey Taylor's number).
Looks like an eight to me. Also, it looks like the band is continuing the trend from the last album cycle of the new member having a mask with little identity. The mask looks a lot like a new version of the old masks given to the band's newer drummer and bassist Jay Weinberg and Alessandro Venturella respectively on the last album cycle for .5: The Grey Chapter, as opposed to an update on Fehn's mask.
But who is the new member? Here are some more stills and throw some guesses in the comments. At least we know for certain it's not former vocalist Anders Colsefni, who said he was not interested in the gig.
The rest of our mask analysis can be found here.
Slipknot's new album, We Are Not Your Kind, comes out August 9th. We'll be waiting.
