Corey Taylor says his We Are Not Your Kind mask “was cool but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do”

Corey Taylor has admitted that his previous We Are Not Your Kind-era mask (pictured above) didn’t turn out quite as he’d hoped, but his new one – which he calls the “smiling skull” – is “rad” and “really, really cool”.

Unveiled live at Rocklahoma in September, the Slipknot frontman explains that he spent three months designing his ridiculously creepy new mask.

“The last one was… it was cool but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do," Corey said during an appearance at Texas Frightmare Weekend 2021 in September (via Blabbermouth). “So this time around, I started early. I actually started designing this before the end of the We Are Not Your Kind cycle, just to make sure that I was ahead of the game and making sure I could dial in all the details and whatnot.

“And I actually did it with a young man named Conor Deless, who's super cool. And he flew out. I walked him through everything that I wanted to have on it. And he was able to mock something up really quick, man. And he really got to the essence of what I was trying to configure. It was almost immediate. And then, really, it was just a matter of waiting for him to build the damn thing… We did the mould. We built it right to my face, so it fits like a glove.

“And it's hot as balls, but it's so rad onstage; it just looks really, really cool. I'm calling it the smiling skull mask.”