Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
Tue 5 Dec
Following the release of their sixth studio album, Hydrograd, Stone Sour have been touring ferociously since May. With such a hot and heavy schedule, you’d expect there to be a couple of riffs not stemming from their guitars, but Corey Taylor and co are metal’s nice guys.
“The band that we have now – it just sounds and works really well together and the tours have been great,” explains drummer Ray Mayorga. “I’ve gotta be honest, there’s not one fuckin’ argument between any of us in this lineup… in this lineup! It’s great man, all we do is laugh and bust each other’s balls all day! A lot of people say ‘oh you gotta hate each other to make good music’ and I feel that’s bullshit.”
Mayorga has been with the band since 2006’s Come What(ever) May, but this is his favourite tour cycle, with bigger venues and greater turnouts. “Response has been killer, we’re really taken aback by it – we didn’t expect [the record] to be doing how it’s been doing. We never have any expectations like that. You make a record, put it out and people like it? Great. They don’t? Great, but we love it. We love making it and playing it.” This month sees the band’s long overdue return to the Welsh capital; they haven’t even reached European shores yet, but Mayorga is already looking forward to returning to Wales. “Last time I was in Cardiff was last year, playing drums for Ministry. I actually had a day off there so I was able to really look around and check out the city. I had a lot of fun there, it was great.” Fans in the UK, he says, are “just more on fire” and we’d have to biasedly agree. “It’s more lifestyle – like how we live and breathe making music, performing it, you know? It’s the same projection on both sides.”
The UK has some competition, though. “We’ve been to Australia, New Zealand and Japan and crowds are really off the hook.” He assures Buzz that the UK never disappoints, but perhaps that’s just the “proper Indian food”?
Tickets: £28.50. Info: 029 2022 4488.
words ALICE PATTILLO