ELOY CASAGRANDE On Becoming a member of SLIPKNOT: ‘That Was The Place That I At all times Needed To Be’

In an interview for the quilt story of the January 2025 difficulty of Fashionable Drummer journal, SLIPKNOT‘s Eloy Casagrande was requested for his opinion of the drummer who changed him in SEPULTURA, Greyson Nekrutman, who joined the latter band at across the similar time in his life as Eloy did in 2011. The Brazilian musician responded: “Sure, and after I see him enjoying, I can bear in mind myself in the identical spot. After I joined SEPULTURA, I used to be his age. That is fairly fascinating. He is an excellent drummer. I used to look at him enjoying movies he posted on social media when he was enjoying extra jazz and drum solos. He is an excellent participant and I want him and the remainder of the band all one of the best. I’ve a variety of respect for him. I want I might speak to him extra someday. Perhaps we might convey all of the SEPULTURA drummers collectively.

“Greyson got here to my studio in São Paulo when he joined the band to do some rehearsals, and we had an excellent speak,” Eloy added. “He had simply two or three weeks to be taught all of the songs, so I gave him some recommendation like, ‘We used to play that tune sooner. Watch out with this tune as a result of we used to play it slower.’ I wasn’t instructing him tips on how to play the songs as a result of he can play something he desires to play. He is an unimaginable drummer.”

Requested what it was like getting the decision from SLIPKNOT and the way he bought the gig, Eloy mentioned: “All the pieces occurred on the finish of 2023 after I bought a name from SLIPKNOT‘s supervisor asking me if I used to be keen on doing an audition for SLIPKNOT. That yr, SEPULTURA determined to cease enjoying, so it was a really pure resolution for me to maintain enjoying with another person as an alternative of simply retiring. On the finish of [2023] and the start of [2024], I wasn’t supposed to speak to anybody about that. The audition was a giant secret. No one might learn about it. SEPULTURA did not even know, it was simply one thing between me and the fellows from SLIPKNOT. It was my resolution to do the audition. I mentioned, ‘Okay, I am keen on doing an audition as a result of SEPULTURA goes to cease. I’ve one and a half years left of working with them and I’ll be executed.’

“Via the years, I’ve performed many occasions with SLIPKNOT,” he continued. “We shared levels after I was enjoying SEPULTURA, and that was the place that I at all times needed to be. I grew up listening to their music, so I needed to have the expertise enjoying dwell with SLIPKNOT with a masks on my face. In my first present with the band I used to be pondering, ‘Oh, that is actually taking place. Oh my god. I am unable to imagine it.’

“Going again a bit of bit, earlier than I used to be invited to do the audition, I took my drums to a studio in São Paulo and did a correct sound and video recording,” Eloy defined. “I performed six songs, and I despatched it to the fellows. I selected three songs after which they requested me to play three particular songs. They had been ‘Eyeless’, ‘Purity’ and ‘Gematria’. My flight was booked to go to the audition, so on the finish of January [of 2024], I flew to Palm Springs, California, and spent ten days with them there. The primary 5 days, the entire band was rehearsing prefer it was a dwell present. Each day, the fellows got here with a distinct setlist, and we simply performed these songs.”

Final month, Fashionable Drummer journal’s readers voted Casagrande because the No. 1 steel drummer within the publication’s 2024 Readers’ Ballot.

After parting methods with Jay Weinberg in November 2023, SLIPKNOT teased followers with a touch a couple of new drummer 10 months in the past, posting a photograph of a single damaged drumstick on-line with the caption “Rehearsal.”

The band defined in an announcement that the break up with Weinberg was a inventive resolution. Jay adopted up with an announcement of his personal, saying that he was “heartbroken and blindsided” by his dismissal.

Weinberg has since joined SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and INFECTIOUS GROOVES.

Casagrande abruptly stop SEPULTURA 11 months in the past, shortly earlier than he was supposed to start rehearsals for the band’s just lately launched Fortieth-anniversary farewell tour.

“February sixth, a number of days previous to the primary rehearsal, drummer Eloy Casagrande knowledgeable the band that he was leaving SEPULTURA to pursue a profession in one other undertaking,” the band mentioned in an announcement.

Casagrande joined SEPULTURA greater than 13 years in the past because the alternative for Jean Dolabella.

SLIPKNOT‘s newest album “The Finish, So Far”, arrived in August 2022. It marked the band’s the final full-length LP earlier than the departure of each keyboardist Craig Jones, who left the group in June 2023, and Weinberg.

SLIPKNOT just lately accomplished the North American portion of the “Right here Comes The Ache” tour. The band was celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of its seminal debut album, “Slipknot”, which catapulted the band again in 1999.

In an interview with Tone-Discuss, SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root spoke about how Casagrande got here to hitch SLIPKNOT and his affect on the band’s general sound. He mentioned: “We did not even attempt anyone else. Eloy‘s identify got here up. He contacted us, really, about eager to be part of it and began sending a bunch of movies in. I believe him and our bass participant [Alessandro ‘Vman’ Venturella] would possibly’ve had a bit of little bit of a relationship earlier than. I believe they knew one another. That they had mutual pals. And Vman‘s actually in tune with a variety of actually nice, proggy, heavy musicians which can be obsessed with their devices. And it simply appeared like a no brainer. And he is actually respectful of the legacy of [SLIPKNOT‘s original drummer, the late] Joey [Jordison], and Joey was an enormous affect on him. And he is so humble. The dude has a lot humility. And you can inform he simply lives and breathes his craft, to the purpose the place I see his ardour and it ignites my ardour for my instrument. And Brazilians, South People normally, are so obsessed with what they do. Our supervisor informed me, he was out to dinner with 4 or 5 promoters from South America, and so they had been all actually stoked. They’re all, like, ‘It is so good you’ve got bought a Brazilian drummer in SLIPKNOT now. We sort of really feel like we have gained the World Cup.’ It is a cool feeling. And God, he simply suits in so effectively. I do not know, man. I imply, there’s a variety of issues I can say about it. I am simply glad it occurred when it did. And we’re fortunate to have him — we’re actually fortunate to have that dude.”