Slipknot’s Clown has shared a photo of a grizzly new mask that the band’s hardcore fans think has never appeared on stage before.

The percussionist and founding member of the band, real name Shawn Crahan, posted the photograph on his own Instagram account, with the caption: “I swore I wouldn’t let this happen”.

The fleshy, gory mask has, according to some hardcore fans, only been seen before in the Knotfest Museum, although it does closely resemble one worn by Crahan on a 1999 tour.

See the mask below:

Earlier this month, the band’s original frontman Anders Colsefni said that a new re-recording of the 1996 demo tape ‘Mate. Feed. Kill, Repeat.’ that was uploaded onto YouTube was shared without his consent.

Colsefni said that he now intended to cancel an upcoming tour where he was due to play the whole of the reworked version of the record, in order to focus his efforts on the re-recording.

“I hope you will trust me to do this properly and make you and the die-hard, old school Slipknot fans proud,” he said. “Then, we will look to put this tour together again, beginning where it began, and spreading as far as you want it to.”

The new recording is stated as being dedicated to late Slipknot members Joey Jordison and Paul Gray. Founding bassist Gray died aged 38 in 2010, whilst founding drummer Jordison passed away aged 46 in 2021.

As for Slipknot, the band are expected to announce who their new drummer is soon (following the sudden departure of Jay Weinberg), as well as share details of their long-lost experimental album ‘Look Outside Your Window’.

Speculation around the latter arose in August last year, when NME asked Corey Taylor about when fans can expect the long-mooted project. “I was talking to Clown about it the other day and he goes, ‘One of the reasons it hasn’t come out is because you keep putting shit out which keeps conflicting with when I want to release it!’”

Clown shared further confirmation when talking to NME in December. “It’s definitely arriving next year. You have my word,” he insisted. “The art’s been done. It’s been mixed. It’s been mastered. It is definitely coming out in 2024 and it’s such a great album.