Slipknot unveils songs, art, on new "best-of" album

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Grammy-winning heavy metal band Slipknot unveiled the artwork and tracklist for their upcoming "best-of" album on Monday, their first release since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray.

"Antennas To Hell," due out on July 24 in the United States, will encompass some of the band's best-known singles from their last four studio albums, including "Spit It Out," "Left Behind" and "Vermilion."

"I think every song Slipknot has ever written is a greatest hit, so it was hard (to narrow it down), but at the same time there's only four records, so we did stick a couple of live songs on," band member Shawn "Clown" Crahan told Reuters.

"It all falls together the way it needs to."

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Slipknot, founded by Gray and Crahan in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995, has eight members -- Crahan and Chris Fehn on percussion, lead singer Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson on turntables, guitarists Jim Root and Mick Thomson, Craig "133" Jones on sampling and drummer Joey Jordison.

Following Gray's death from an accidental overdose in 2010, the band's future has been hotly debated in the world of music with media outlets posting conflicting reports on the end of Slipknot, something Crahan said has amused him.

"We as a band have never decided to go away. We've never even talked about it; it's not even a question. The only question was how long it was going to take each individual member to accept what's happened and feel comfortable with moving on in the record area," said Crahan.

"Paul was the major part of writing records. It's not only my brother that I'm not seeing, but it's also what he brought to the table," added the percussionist.

Crahan said the band will be stepping away from the spotlight after playing a series of summer festivals, so that band members can go through "the healing process" and work on a new record. He said the lyrics were already being written for the next album and the artwork would be "severely involved."

The band released four studio albums over the years, 1999's self-titled debut, 2001's "Iowa," 2004's "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" and 2008's "All Hope Is Gone," selling more than 20 million records worldwide.

"Antennas To Hell" packages notes on their career with a DVD of a live show at 2009's Download Festival, video montages of Slipknot and its members, and the 19-song compilation.

Along with the album, the band is headlining festivals over the U.S. summer before taking the helm of their very own, the first annual Knotfest, taking place in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on August 17 and in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 18.

"Now is the best time to exercise the philosophy of this beautiful art thing that we're going to make known as Knotfest," said Crahan. "The community is what we want to bring back, I want to bring back the intimacy of concerts."

The tracklist for "Antennas To Hell" is as follows:

1. (sic)

2. Eyeless

3. Wait And Bleed

4. Spit It Out

5. Surfacing

6. People = Shit

7. Disasterpiece

8. Left Behind

9. My Plague (New Abuse Mix)

10. The Heretic Anthem (live)

11. Purity (live)

12. Pulse Of The Maggots

13. Duality

14. Before I Forget

15. Vermilion

16. Sulfur

17. Psychosocial

18. Dead Memories

19. Snuff

(This version of the story has been corrected to fix a typo in second paragraph)

(Editing by David Brunnstrom)