Slipknot drop Arsenal — first new song in three years, and it is not on the next album

On September 9, Slipknot surprise-released Arsenal and a video. It premiered in the Hottest Record slot on BBC Radio 1’s New Music Show with Jack Saunders. It is the band’s first new song in more than three years. Last album: The End, So Far (August 2022).

M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan directed the clip. Actor Jackson White (Tell Me Lies) is in it. Credits list (sic)est Films and (sic)est Records. This is Slipknot’s first release on their own label after a 25-year Roadrunner deal. (sic)est is partnered with Roadrunner and Atlantic — not a full split.

“It pummels, it is absolutely a pummelling experience. One of my favourite things about it is, it kind of encapsulates everything that we do. Like it's got these great moments of hyperactivity, and then at the end, man, there's this sublime drop that just makes it. It's like we've got everyone by the hair, and we're just going, Go! Go! That to me sums up Slipknot completely.”

Corey Taylor, BBC Radio 1, September 9, 2026

It is the first recorded Slipknot song with drummer Eloy Casagrande (joined from Sepultura in 2024, replacing Jay Weinberg). It is also the first without sampler Craig Jones (left June 2023) and without Sid Wilson (left August 2026). In spring 2026, Taylor, Crahan, Jim Root, and Wilson — still in the band then — released Look Outside Your Window, old experimental tracks from the All Hope Is Gone (2008) sessions. That is not a new Slipknot studio album, and it is not Arsenal.

There is no title or date for the next record. Matt Wallace is producing the sessions. In July, Root talked about “at least like 50” arrangements. On September 9 he told fans on Instagram that Arsenal will not be on the album.

“‘Arsenal’ was a tune we could quickly get out there while we work on the rest of the record. It’s not really representative of the other tunes.”

Jim Root, Instagram, September 9, 2026

Asked if it will appear on the album: “No. This was just one that we could finish ‘sooner’ to get out there.” They have done this before: All Out Life (2018) ahead of We Are Not Your Kind, and Bone Church (2023) after The End, So Far.