Houdini Mansion

Although he was a noted debunker of spiritualists during his lifetime, magician Harry Houdini vowed that he would return from death if such a feat were possible. Ten years after his death on Halloween, 1926, psychic Arthur Ford and Houdini’s widow claimed to have received a coded message from the late magician.

Some visitors to Harry Houdini’s Laurel Canyon home believe that the property is haunted. Even though the mansion burned down in 1959, Houdini’s apparition is sometimes seen in a grotto or on the charred remains of the staircase. Another persistent rumor about the property is that there is a hidden iron chest containing all of the magician’s secrets.

Slipknot’s newest album entitled ‘Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses’ was recorded inside the Houdini Mansion. The album is due in May 25th.

Joey Jordison: “The house was built in 1918,” says Jordison. “It’s pretty much a mansion and it’s very haunted.You’ll be standing there,getting literally pushed,and look around and there’s no-one there that could do that.My door would open at 9-9:30am for the first two weeks until I put a brick in front of it to stop that happening.”

The nine-piece band, known for wearing jumpsuits and disturbing masks while performing live, holed up in the Harry Houdini Mansion in Laurel Canyon, Calif., with producer Rick Rubin to lay down tracks for the upcoming “Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses)” – and had a series of, shall we say, unusual experiences while living there.

Rock outfit SLIPKNOT have inadvertently found a unique venue to record their new album in – a haunted house. The group have reconvened after spending the last year pursuing solo projects and while they insist their music is better than ever, they can’t say the same for their surroundings. American rockers SLIPKNOT have been recording their new album in a haunted house in Los Angeles. The WAIT AND BLEED band are also living in the spooky property and drummer JOEY JORDISON admits to being shocked by ghostly goings-on there. He says, “The house was built in 1918. It’s pretty much a mansion and it’s very haunted. “You’ll be standing there, getting literally pushed, and look around and there’s no-one there who could do that. “My door would open at 9-9.30am for the first two weeks until I put a brick in front of it to stop that happening.” “I was doing laundry in the basement and I went into this one room. It felt like something walked through me. It freaked me out. Now I don’t go in the fucking basement anymore.” The sticksman also reveals the band are progressing towards a more experimental sound than on their previous albums. Joey says, “This time we’ve got timpanies, we’ve got MOOG keyboards. “There’s a bunch of weird stuff as far as sounds and experimentation goes. It’s a bit more out there and a bit more spacey. “It’s almost as if SLAYER was tapping on RADIOHEAD. I don’t want to freak anyone out, but that’s just where we’re at right now.”

The 4 Lucky Fans

At the time, she blindfolded all four contest winners, and along with John (gent who has been filming many-a-moment from the recording of Slipknot’s new album in the mansion), stated making their way to the Houdini Mansion.

“It was cool…yet kinda weird,” tells Matt, one of the contest winners about the beginning of the journey. After driving around for a about 15 minutes, Maria hung up her cell, turned back, and snarled, “Slipknot ain’t ready for ya, yet.”

At said point, Matt relays his thoughts turned to “thinking what are they gonna do??? Line us up in a corner and throw shit at us?” Ahh, the initiation into the world of Slipknot?

Around 4pm, the van pulled into the Houdini Mansion, where Slipknot has been recording their third studio album over the past few months. Greeted by Corey, Joey, Mick, Jim, Craig, and Chris, the four unsuspecting souls were taken out to the back, where they were tied up, thrown into the pool on the estate grounds, and left submerged under water until they could free themselves, like the great Houdini himself.

Actually, strike that last line. At said point, the four were taken into the mansion, behind the mixing board, where all the magic has been happening. There, these four guys were the first people outside of camp Slipknot to hear the new music the band has been writing and recording. They heard 4-5 new tracks.

“The new stuff, dude, sounds phenomenal,” tells Matt. “Not only is the music better, but the sound is better,” he continued. “(The first song played) was an intro, I think, very ominous…but maybe it was a full song, it was like 3 minutes long. Then they went into some fast stuff. Then Mick said, ‘wait till you hear the heavy stuff.’” At which point, apparently all in the mixing room laughed…”because this WAS heavy,” explained Matt. “But he (Mick) was being serious.” Matt’s last words on the new music, “it’s way more intricate, heavy, sounds way better than anything they have done before.”

Another winner, Edgar, remembers the day a bit differently: “Saturday was quite an exquisite afternoon. We were blindfolded…raped by Maria…it was filmed by this short white-dude named John…and we were forced to listen to country music inside the Houdini Mansion…oh…and did I mention that in order to get inside they had to perform and enema on all four of us?”

In all seriousness (though Edgar did indeed write the above words), Edgar – who happens to play guitar himself – finally tells, “it was a great feeling to see that I am not the only 6’4″ jolly-green-giant that is playing music professionally. Mick Thomson and Jim Root have now become my muse. Everything I do musically now will be because of their musical influences. Thank you all for the opportunity of a lifetime…”

There you have it. It is real. New Slipknot is on the way. To the four winners, glad you had a great time, thanks for participating. You have the distinct pleasure of being the only four people in the world outside of camp Slipknot to have heard any of the new Slipknot.

Critics

SLIPKNOT are set to take on their critics on their new album.

The flamboyant metal outfit recently entered the studio with producer Rick Rubin to record the follow-up to 2001′s ‘Iowa’. And one track in particular marks out people who have accused the band of encouraging violent crime through their uncompromising themes and videos.

Singer Corey Taylor told Rolling Stone: “We kind of became the scapegoat for a while. If anything bad happens, everybody wanted to blame us. You never hear about anyone going on a violent killing spree with Pat Boone in their headset, because that doesn’t make headlines.”

Taylor also acknowledged that the new record could be make or break for the band post-nu-metal.

He admitted: “This album is either going to change the world or drive the world to destroy us. The chances we’re taking right now are in directions we never thought we’d go. There are so many things that are going to surprise people. I learned a long time ago that you can be heavy without screaming your lungs out.

“I’m definitely taking a different approach to not just the delivery of what I do, but the things I’m saying. It’s time to start talking about things other than myself. The stuff I’ve been writing is very philosophical.”

Ghost

That weirdness included a ghost sighting.

“The thing about ghosts is when they manifest, they take on two different forms,” Taylor says. “They either take on the human ethereal form, or they take on the form of an orb: round, white spheres that you can sometimes see in the air. One night, the thermostat in my room turned itself up from 65 to 75. And at the exact second it did that, I had taken a picture of one side of the room, and caught two orbs on film right next to the thermostat. To make sure it wasn’t a flare, I took another picture, and they were gone. A split second later, brand new batteries that I’d just put into the camera were dead.”….

“Oh, it’s haunted,” assured singer Corey Taylor, calling from his Iowa home. “You can put the rumors to rest, because I’ve seen it and dealt with it for six months. I’ve got some stories that would raise the hair on the back of your neck — and that’s no (expletive), that’s not just for press. It’s so weird, I don’t even like talking about it.

“Me and (percussionist Shawn Crahan) shared two adjacent rooms, and written on the phone jack box was ‘in case of paranormal activity, dial’ and it had a phone number, ‘or 911.’ That’s the level of insanity we dealt with.”

In fact, the band members — DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Gray, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist Jim Root, sampler Craig Jones, guitarist Mick Thomson, Crahan and Taylor — would convene in the studio every morning and bond over the previous evening’s strange events. Taylor even claimed to have seen apparitions in his room on more than one occasion.