The band - featuring vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root, both of Slipknot, as well as bassist Shawn Economaki and drummer Roy Mayorga - is on the fourth leg on a yearlong tour.

Even though the five-piece band has just two albums - not counting the special edition release of 2006's "Come What(Ever) May," which features mucho bonus material - the music leaves an indelible impression, whether you're recoiling from the sonic assault of "30/30-150" or swaying gently to the gentle musings of "Through Glass."

The contrast in styles is stark, yet very amusing.

Stone Sour broke out in 2002 with an eponymous, eclectic album that featured the Billboard hit "Brother." It was no overnight sensation, though. It took almost 10 years of playing bars and small concert settings before the band got signed.

"Corey went on to join Slipknot in 1997 or 1998, but we have known each other forever," says Rand, an Iowan who tried out for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League during their very first season.

"We kept writing together. We had a project we did for ourselves, a couple of songs, and 'Get Inside My Idol Hands' caught the record company's attention and they said we should do a band. We already had a band, so we brought everybody back."

Stone Sour's "Come What(Ever) May" was another eclectic effort. Its special edition includes a bonus DVD from a live concert in Moscow.

"For 'Come What(Ever) May,' we did the opposite of what we did on the first, which was 95 percent live," Rand explains. "We had a lot of success on the first record because of "Bother," but this time, we really wanted to isolate and focus on the sonics. The great thing about this band is we really believe we have no boundaries."

The piano-based "Zzyzx Rd." is another anomaly of sorts, but is a piece of pure joy.

"We don't believe in genres," Rand says. "We believe in good music or bad music. Hell, we may have a jazz lounge tune on the next record. The cool thing is we don't set out to do this, all these different styles. It just happens. It's the writing process. We all write as individuals and then bring it together. We just want to make it better, but we keep the individual writer's vision in mind and try not to stray too much from that. Ultimately, we want to make great music."

Each member of the band brings something different to the creative process. Taylor is considered the melody-maker while Rand is the riff guy. He counts metal bands like Accept, Dream Theater, and more mainstream hard rockers like Metallica, Kiss and Motley Crue as big influences, but has a penchant for guitar gods like Joe Satriani and Dream Theater's John Petrucci.

"Metallica is still the biggest influence overall," he admits, which is obvious from the way Stone Sour loves to interplay between speed and melody. "It's when I first picked up the instrument."

After this tour ends, Taylor is going back to Slip Knot and Rand is scheduled to start another project.