Stone Sour‘s ‘House of Gold & Bones Part 1′ is set to be released Oct. 23 as the first of a two part concept album, with the second part expected in May of 2013. In a new interview, singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Josh Rand spoke with Metal Shrine about a number of topics, including the band’s new touring bassist.

Taylor explains the genesis of the album, saying, “I’ve had the idea for the concept for a few years actually, but I’ve never given myself the time to really flesh it out and see it clearly. It was right about the time when we did the Sonisphere shows that for some reason “Boom!”, it f—ing hit me! I saw it as clear as day, beginning, middle and end. I knew the characters, I knew the world that I wanted to create, I knew what I wanted to do.”

After the exit of Stone Sour bassist Shawn Economaki earlier this year, the band recruited Rachel Bolan from Skid Row to play bass on ‘House of Gold & Bones.’ Rand says it was a great experience: “He’s a phenomenal writer on top of being a phenomenal bass player and he brought this style into it that we felt had been lacking. Instead of following the guitars, he actually plays bass and it elevated all of the songs to a whole new level.”

Rand adds, “He came in, a super cool guy and did all 24 songs in five days. It was insane! I don’t think people realize how great of a player he is. It was just insane to watch him knock these songs out. With him coming in and doing that, it just added another level of energy to the whole project and he took a lot of the songs to a different level.”

Bolan’s schedule with Skid Row won’t allow him to play live shows with Stone Sour, and Rand revealed the touring bassist will be Johny Chow. Chow has played with Cavalera Conspiracy, Soulfly and Fireball Ministry. Stone Sour will embark on a European tour at the end of October that will last for the rest of the year. They”ll also play Australia in early 2013.

-loudwire.com