"It wasn't until we finished the vocals at his house that I saw him more than once a week."

Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor has criticised Rick Rubin and praised producer Greg Fidelman, as the band enter the studio with the latter to record their long-awaited sixth album.

Rubin is credited as the producer for Slipknot’s 2004 album ‘Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)’, while Fidelman engineered and mixed the record.

Now, in an interview on Dean Delray’s ‘Let There Be Talk’ podcast, Taylor has taken aim at Rubin’s long absences from the studio due to his other work commitments, and described Fidelman as the ‘unsung hero’ of the record.

“When it came time to work with Rick, he just wasn’t fucking there,” Taylor said.

“He had six different projects going on, it felt like. It’s, like, ‘Oh, I’m working with U2 now.’ And I’m, like, ‘We’re still in the fucking studio, dude.’ Honestly, it wasn’t until we finished the vocals at his house that I saw him more than once a week.”

In praise of Fidelman, meanwhile, Taylor said: “To me, he was the other producer… [Rick was a] nice guy, absolutely nice guy, however, Fidelman was there soup to nuts with us, man. He was there from sometimes six in the morning till four in the morning, I mean, every day, when we needed him.”

Fidelman went on to produce Slipknot’s most recent album ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’, as well as their recent single ‘All Out Life’.

Elsewhere in the interview Taylor confirmed that Slipknot will be back in the studio with Fidelman for its follow up over the coming months, with a tentative summer release date.

“We have a great rapport with him. He gets us, he challenges us, but he also knows when to get out of the way and just let us be us. So we have a great relationship with him,” Taylor said of Fidelman.

Meanwhile, Slipknot are also rumoured to be working on a collaboration with streetwear brand Supreme. Taylor has also revealed that he has been thinking about making a “dark jazz album” in the future.