Eloy Casagrande has completed his drum tracks for Slipknot’s next album, with some parts improvised during recording.
Eloy Casagrande has finished recording his drum parts for Slipknot’s forthcoming album, completing a major part of his first full-length release with the band.
Speaking to Craig Reynolds on The Downbeat Podcast, the drummer said he had wrapped up tracking roughly a week to 10 days before their conversation. He also explained how much of the material took shape with him behind the kit.
Casagrande and guitarist Jim Root began exchanging riffs and drum ideas towards the end of 2025. Around February or March, they joined percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan in the studio for hours of jamming. They recorded the sessions and picked out passages worth developing, before more members joined the process.
Producer Matt Wallace also took part in those sessions. Casagrande described Crahan as a constant presence, helping identify the moments that could become songs.
As BLUNT previously reported, the band had moved into tracking by September. Casagrande wanted to carry the spontaneity of those writing sessions into his recorded performances.
Capturing complete performances
Casagrande said he recorded most songs as complete drum takes, aiming to retain the physical feel of playing a show. That did not mean getting everything on the first attempt. He would play a song several times before choosing the strongest performance, sometimes combining halves of different takes.
He preferred to avoid punching in individual sections, keeping longer stretches of playing intact.
“I’m not a machine,” he said.
Some parts were still taking shape as he recorded them. Casagrande entered certain songs knowing exactly what to play. Others developed on the spot with encouragement from Wallace and Crahan. When he hears tracks back as his bandmates record, he sometimes cannot remember what he played.
If those songs reach the stage, he will need to learn those performances. The chosen takes preserve decisions he made in the moment, rather than arrangements he settled before recording began.
September’s single ‘Arsenal’ offers an example of that approach. Casagrande said it began with a Corey Taylor demo, with Root adding riffs. He later reworked the drums with Crahan. After an afternoon of playing the song with the band, he recorded a complete take.
While Casagrande has completed his drum tracks, an album title and release date had yet to be confirmed at the time of publication.
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