* En anglais uniquement
Emerging from the same Midwest expanse as heavier sibling act
Slipknot, American quintet
Stone Sour carved out their own identity as a Grammy-nominated hard rock outfit with a string of Top Ten albums, including 2006's platinum hit
Come What(ever) May and the two-part
House of Gold & Bones.
Although
Slipknot made their mainstream debut in the late '90s, singer
Corey Taylor and guitarist
Jim Root got their start a few years prior in
Stone Sour. Inspired by
Metallica and
Alice in Chains, the group spent several years playing the Iowa bar circuit before
Taylor and
Root joined
Slipknot. After the release of
Slipknot's first two albums,
Stone Sour re-formed in 2002 and quickly distinguished themselves as a post-grunge counterpart to
Slipknot's furious, percussion-heavy metal.
Root and
Taylor contacted original guitarist
Josh Rand and bassist
Shawn Economaki about recording a full-length
Stone Sour album. The bandmates had already released several demos during their initial time together, and some of those songs were re-recorded for
Stone Sour's self-titled debut, which earned two Grammy nominations and was RIAA-certified gold. Drafting in drummer
Joel Ekman, the band released a song for the
Spider-Man soundtrack ("Bother," credited only to
Taylor) while recording the album in Los Angeles. A tour followed, and
Stone Sour took a short break while
Taylor and
Root returned their attention to
Slipknot for the recording of
Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses.
Several years later, the band returned to the studio to work on a second album. The platinum-selling
Come What(ever) May was produced by
Nick Raskulinecz (
Foo Fighters,
Velvet Revolver) and arrived in August 2006, hitting number four on the Billboard charts and spawning the successful single "Through Glass."
Stone Sour hit the road that same year on the Family Values tour with high-profile headliners
Deftones and
Korn, and they released a digital concert album,
Live in Moscow, in 2007. Once the touring was over,
Taylor and
Root shifted their focus to
Slipknot once again, this time for the creation of 2008's chart-topping
All Hope Is Gone.
Stone Sour's hiatus was shorter this time around, though, as the group returned in 2010 with a new album,
Audio Secrecy, a more subdued effort that found the bandmembers maturing as songwriters. This trend continued into 2012 with their next release,
House of Gold & Bones, Pt. 1, which would be the first part of an ambitious concept double album. In 2013,
Stone Sour released the second part,
House of Gold & Bones, Pt. 2. At this time,
Root was noticeably absent from the group's touring lineup. His official departure from
Stone Sour was confirmed later that year. A pair of covers EPs (
Meanwhile in Burbank and
Straight Outta Burbank) arrived in 2015, followed by the band's sixth full-length, 2017's
Hydrograd. The first
Stone Sour album without
Root, the effort peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200. In 2019 the band issued the concert LP Hello, You Bastards: Live in Reno. ~ Bradley Torreano