A Rumor of Skin

This is a track from House Of Gold And Bones: Part 1, the first half of a double concept album about a character called The Human who wakes up in a mysterious world, where he comes across various characters including one who is his doppleganger called Allen. The Human is instructed by his look-a-like to find the House of Gold and Bones before the before an event called the Conflagration takes place. Frontman Corey Taylor told Artist Direct how this song fits into the storyline. "It's basically the first meeting between Allen and The Human," he said. "When I'm hearing that, I see the moment when they're in the building. There's the smoky mess that will eventually coalesce into Allen holding the cigarette and smoking. That's what I hear in my head as that happens." "As he starts to coalesce, that's where the real back and forth starts to come about." continued Taylor."There are three different voices going on. There's one which is Allen, one which is The Human, and one in the background that's doing the melody line from 'Gone Sovereign,' I don't know if people really catch that."

Taylor told Artist Direct the song's main riff came from an accident. "I was sitting there playing guitar," he explained. "I did this slide down to go to an open e-chord, and I missed it by half a fret. I built everything on top of that. I had the melody for the chorus, but I even had the chords for it. Putting that together was really awesome."