This has got to be the most bizarre backstage area Metal Hammer has ever seen. The Ice Hall – or Tampereen jäähalli, to give it its local name – is just that. When it’s not playing host to live music, it’s home to Ilves and Tappara of the SM (Suomen mestaruus)-liiga – or “Finnish championship” – Finland’s national ice hockey league. Tonight, the tour’s flightcases have found a home among lockers, racks of hockey sticks and jerseys, medical kits, weights benches and gym equipment.

“Fuck!” Slipknot’s Corey Taylor exclaims as he wanders into the gym-cum-makeshift interview room. He’s just woken up and is a little cranky. What’s up, Corey?

“I fucked my shoulder up in Australia. We just got done travelling to Europe for a day and a half which didn’t help.” He’s not kidding. It’s currently swelled up twice its natural size and he’s got a Quasimodo-style hunch. Is that going to affect your performance?

“Fuck no! I’ll grit my teeth and scream through the pain!”

It’s a common philosophy in the Slipknot camp. Drummer Joey Jordison is still feeling the effects of the broken ankles that forced the cancellation of this year’s Reading and Leeds festival, though you wouldn’t know it from his double-kick assault onstage. And, no longer confined to a wheelchair or with casts on his feet, DJ Sid Wilson still has a fondness for climbing lighting rigs despite being barely able to walk with the aid of a cane after he broke both his heels – an injury that takes twice as long to heal than regular broken bones – in an ill-judged dive into the crowd on this summer’s Stateside Mayhem tour.

“There’s something about when you hear the roar of the crowd that carries you through all of that,” Corey explains. “Something happens in your brain that makes you ready. I don’t know what chemical floods your body but I’d love to get it on tap and be like, ‘Wooooo, here we go!’”

Check out the next part!