Slipknot (band)

Slipknot

Slipknot (sometimes typeset as SlipKnoT to fit their logo) is a Grammy winning American band from Des Moines, Iowa. The nine-piece formed in 1995 and are currently signed to Roadrunner Records.

Their albums and home videos have achieved platinum sales status. The band's Grammy award nominations include Best Metal Performance, which their song, "Before I Forget", won after six successive years of nomination.

History

Early years (before 1995)

Slipknot's first songs were composed in 1993. The band went through the names "The Pale Ones," "PyGSYSTEM," and "Meld" before they settled on SlipKnoT. Many of the songs on Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat and some that were added to later albums were written during these sessions. Shawn Crahan was the lead drummer before Joey Jordison entered the band. Crahan, being the founder, came up with the idea of having three drummers; first to create a powerful tribal sound, and second to create a "wall of sound", both of which Crahan wanted.

Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. and Slipknot (1995–2000)

The band achieved a stable line-up in late 1995, and released a demo entitled Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat on Halloween 1996. The demo was distributed by the small, Nebraska-based label -ismist Recordings. A year later Slipknot hired Corey Taylor (Stone Sour frontman)as the new lead vocalist and pushed Anders to percussion. They were always creating new material and there was rumours of a second self released CD, however this never came to fruition as they went through more line-up changes and eventually got signed to Roadrunner Records.

At the insistence of Midwest Promotion representative John Kuliak, Roadrunner Records signed the band in 1997. A year later, Slipknot, produced by Ross Robinson, was released in June of 1999. Regarding the album, Rick Anderson of All Music Guide wrote "You thought Limp Bizkit was heavy? They're The Osmonds. Slipknot is something else entirely." Also in 1999, the band was part of the Ozzfest, which greatly expanded the band's fanbase. In early 2000, the album was certified platinum, a first for any album released by Roadrunner Records. In July 2001, Q magazine named Slipknot as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time".

Iowa (2001–2002)

Iowa, the band's second album with Roadrunner Records, was released in 2001. Critical response to the album was generally favorable: Jason Arnopp of Kerrang! called the album "one beautifully crafted labour of hate", and David Fricke of Rolling Stone called the album "the first great record of the nu-metal era." It was a commercial success also, peaking at number three on the Billboard album charts, and at number one on the UK album chart. In mid-2001, the band once again toured with Ozzfest, and in Autumn 2001, the band went on The Pledge of Allegiance Tour with System of a Down. A live album entitled Pledge of Allegiance Tour: Live Concert Recording was recorded from this tour. The band also appeared in the concert scene of the 2002 movie Rollerball. The single "Left Behind", a track from Iowa, was nominated for a Grammy in 2002. In 2002, the BBC said that Slipknot stole the show and proved entertaining after the band performed at Reading Festival in England.

Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and hiatus (2003–2007)

In late 2003, the band began writing and recording with renowned producer Rick Rubin, who had previously worked with artists such as Johnny Cash, System of a Down, and Slayer. The band released their third album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) in May 2004. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 and . Johnny Loftus of All Music Guide called the album "a satisfying, carefully crafted representation of [the band's] career to date." Robert Cherry of Rolling Stone said that the album "experiments with even newer extremes, which in Slipknot's case means tunefulness and traditional song structures." In 2004, the band toured with Ozzfest for a third time. In early 2005, the band went on The Subliminal Verses Tour with Shadows Fall and Lamb of God. Several members of the band collaborated with other artists on the Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions CD released in October 2005. On the record, Joey Jordison was named a "team captain". James Root, Corey Taylor, and Paul Gray also contributed to the album. 9.0: Live, a live album recorded from shows in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Osaka, Singapore, and Tokyo, was released in November 2005. The album peaked at 17 on the Billboard 200.

In 2006, the band won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance for "Before I Forget". The DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine was released December 5, 2006. In January, Corey Taylor stated in an interview with VH1 that the band is currently on hiatus until 2008 while the members work on their side projects.

Reformation and new album (2007–present)

On April 19, 2007, the band's website posted a news article stating that a new Slipknot album "will surface in 2008." Jordison explained in a recent Kerrang! Magazine interview that this album would be the heaviest they've ever made and recording shall commence in January 2008. On April 19, 2007 Jordison stated that he would be drumming for Korn in the summer of 2007.

Style

Slipknot has an extreme performance style provided by their massive line-up featuring a typical heavily downtuned guitar setup (lead, rhythm, and bass guitars), two percussionists in addition to the primary drummer, and electronics (samplers and turntables). Robert Cherry of Rolling Stone compared the band's sound to "a threshing machine devouring a military drum corps."

Their early work hosted a large range of vocal styles, ranging from rapping to occasional singing to grindcore-esque growling. In more recent work, this vocal style remains present, but now includes more melodic singing. The lyrics generally follow a very aggressive tone, "[are] not generally quotable on a family website", and feature themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, and psychosis.

Injuries suffered

Due to the band's often extreme live performances, all of the band members have suffered multiple injuries. These range from simple bruising, to more severe injuries such as broken ribs. A detailed list of injuries can be found here.

Image and identities

The band is known for its attention-grabbing image. The members wear matching uniform jumpsuits and homemade masks. In the past, their jumpsuits have featured large UPC barcodes printed on the back and sleeves, which are identical to the barcode on their first album, Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat. The initial reason for the band wearing masks was the disbelief and ridicule the band received in reaction to their musical ambition. Aside from their real names, members of the band are referred to by numbers 0 through 8.

Today most members of the band have now been photographed without their masks, largely as the result of their work outside of Slipknot:

• Vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root appear unmasked when working with their band Stone Sour and Corey Taylor was unmasked in an appearance on the Killswitch Engage DVD. He has also appeared unmasked in the Des Moines Register and on a Metal Hammer DVD in which he receives a tattoo of Jean Valjean's prison number, 24601, upon his back.
• Drummer Joey Jordison appears unmasked with his side project the Murderdolls and when he plays in other bands such as Ministry, Satyricon and Korn.
• Percussionist Shawn Crahan appears unmasked with his band To My Surprise and Dirty Little Rabbits .
• DJ Sid Wilson works unmasked when performing as DJ Starscream.
• Guitarist Mick Thomson appeared unmasked in a Total Guitar magazine shoot. He is also unmasked in the video for single "No Pity on the Ants" by Lupara. In the video, he plays a serial killer.
• Bassist Paul Gray's face was revealed in a police mugshot leaked through The Smoking Gun, He also played unmasked on a recent tour with Reggie and the Full Effect (save for a notable Halloween performance, where the entire band wore Slipknot masks).
• Gray and Jordison have appeared unmasked during various photo shoots and sessions with Roadrunner United.

In the video for "Before I Forget" the band performed without their masks; however, the band members' faces are shown only as brief glimpses, with the camera mostly focused on their hands and instruments. In the video, the masks are visible hanging off hooks, possibly representing their unwillingness to "forget." Each member is also unmasked in individual interviews on their DVD Voliminal: Inside the Nine.

The band's image has sparked controversy over the years. Some of the controversy comes from the band Mushroomhead, who, along with their fans, claim that Slipknot stole their image. In 2005, another source of controversy was the band's lawsuit against Burger King, claiming that company created the advertising based band Coq Roq to capitalize on Slipknot's image. The band's lawyer claimed that Burger King had contacted the band's label to get Slipknot to take part in "advertising campaign designed to motivate young people to vote." Burger King responded to the suit with a countersuit, and in that suit pointed out that many other bands, such as Mudvayne, Kiss, and GWAR have used masks as part of their image, although after private discussions the advertising campaign was dropped.

Band members

Current members

• Sid Wilson - Turntables
• Joey Jordison - Drums
• Paul Gray - Bass
• Chris Fehn - Custom Percussion
• Jim Root - Rhythm Guitar
• Craig Jones - Samples/Media
• Shawn Crahan - Custom Percussion
• Mick Thompson - Lead Guitar
• Corey Taylor - Vocals

Former members

• Patrick M. Neuwirth - Guitar
• Quan "Meld" Nong - Guitar
• John Green - Guitar
• Donnie Steele - Guitar
• Anders Colsefini - Lead Vocals / Percussion, Backing Vocals
• Greg "Cuddles" Welts - Percussion
• Josh "Gnar" Brainard - Guitar, Backing Vocals

Discography

Main article: Slipknot discography

Awards and recognition

Slipknot have won one Grammy Award:

• 2006: Best Metal Performance -"Before I Forget"

Collaborators

Members of Slipknot have recorded with numerous other artists, including:

• Sister Soleil - Corey Taylor appears on the track "Liar" off her album Soularium. The track also features Steve Wolfe.
• Shannon Larkin - plays the drums on the track "30/30-150" on Stone Sour's album Come What(ever) May.
• Necro - Sid Wilson scratches on the track "Empowered" (which also features Michel Langevin, Trevor Peres, John Tardy & Danny Lilker) off his album The Pre-Fix For Death. Sid has also allegedly contributed to Necro's Circle Of Tyrants (Necro + Ill Bill + Mr. Hyde + Goretex) project, but the tracks didn't make the album and have yet to be released.
• Lab 4 - Sid Wilson remixed their track "Perfect Drug" on their None Of Us Are Saints album.
• Damageplan - Corey Taylor contributes vocals on "Fuck You" on their album New Found Power
• Anthrax - Corey Taylor helped with vocals at a live performance of "Bring the Noise" although his microphone was malfunctioning or off and he is barely audible.
• Marilyn Manson - Sean McMahon & Joey Jordison remixed their hit "The Fight Song". Joey Jordison also has a cameo appearance on the Marilyn Manson hit Tainted Love.
• Malevolent Creation - Mick Thompson plays a guitar solo for the track "Deliver My Enemy" on Malevolent Creation's tenth full-length album Doomsday X (expected to be released in summer of 2007).
• Soulfly - Corey Taylor appears on "Jumpdafuckup" on the Primitive album.
• Sticky Fingaz - Corey Taylor contributed vocals to track "The End of the World", which was supposed to be on his album Black Trash: The Autobiography Of Kirk Jones, but it didn't make the cut. In a recent interview, Sticky confirmed recording a second track with Slipknot, which has also yet to be released.
• KCUF - Sid Wilson remixed "The 5th" and "Goldfish" on their Modern Primitive Punk album.
• Shannon Mitchell - appears on "Sword Sharpening Remix" on DJ Starscream's The New Leader album.
• Dream Theater - Corey Taylor contributed vocals to the track "Repentance", on their new album Systematic Chaos
• Biohazard - Members of Slipknot appear on their track "Domination" off their Uncivilization CD. Track also features Jamey Jasta.
• 3 Inches of Blood - Joey Jordison produced their Fire up the Blades album.
• Rob Gee - Sid Wilson has remixed and appears on several of his tracks, including "Riot In New York", "Pretty Fucked Up", "Adrenalize", and others.
• Anthony B - Appears on "Come On Remix" on DJ Starscream's album The New Leader.
• Korn - When Stone Sour toured with Korn on the Family Values Tour. Corey Taylor came up on stage and contributed vocals to Korn's "Freak on a Leash". Joey Jordison also performed drums for the video of Evolution.
• System of a Down - Joey Jordison filled in for John Dolmayan at one show.
• Apocalyptica - Corey Taylor starred as a guest musician on the track "I'm not Jesus"
• Metallica - Joey played drums for Metallica at the 2004 Download Festival when Lars Ulrich was rushed to hospital with an illness.
• Atreyu - Vocalist of Atreyu: Alex Varkatzas stars as a guest vocalist on the song Scissors.
• Snot - Corey Taylor played alongside the remaining snot members on the record "Strait Up"
• OTEP- Joey Jordison contributed drums to some tracks on their second album House of Secrets.
• John 5 - James Root guest features in "The Black Widow of La Porte" on the album The Devil Knows My Name.

Feuds

Limp Bizkit

Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit was embroiled in controversy with Slipknot after lead singer Corey Taylor heard from a friend that Durst referred to their fans as "the fat ugly kids" in a Spin Magazine interview.

Shawn Crahan, one of Slipknot's percussionists, threatened violence against him if he criticized their fans again, and Taylor later said in an interview with MuchMusic that he saw Durst as a great businessman, but not as an artist. In a 2001 post on Limp Bizkit's official website, Durst disputed the perceived ill will against Slipknot. He was quoted as writing, "We really like Slipknot and are very happy that they hate us, because it makes their music heavier, angrier and real!!".

Green Day

Billie Joe Armstrong, vocalist of punk rock band Green Day has criticized Slipknot on numerous occasions. He said in an interview that "their masks are so fucking retarded" and even went as far as to call an audience member "an arsehole" for throwing a tattered mask on the stage. This would seem ironic though, as he has sometimes donned random masks while singing lines from some of his songs on stage at times, including the opening line to Longview at the 2004 Reading Festival.

Mushroomhead

Conflicts between Mushroomhead started in the 1990s when Roadrunner Records signed with Slipknot instead of Mushroomhead, even though the label were close to signing with Mushroomhead.

Slipknot debuted on Roadrunner Records with its 1999 album “Slipknot”. Corey Taylor has stated that Slipknot had never heard of Mushroomhead until they were recording their debut album in 1998.

After Roadrunner's acquisition, controversial similarities could be seen. Mushroomhead and its fans believed that Slipknot had stolen their image due to similarities such as a large line-up, Mushroomhead’s eight men and Slipknot’s nine, all band members of both bands wearing masks, several identical masks (Skinny’s gas mask v. Sid Wilson’s gas mask, Pig Benis’ pig mask v. Paul Gray’s pig mask) and uniform costumes (Mushroomhead’s camouflage coveralls v. Slipknot’s barcode coveralls). Each member of Slipknot adopted a number in place of their birth name. This caused rivalries between Slipknot and Mushroomhead that continued even after the turn of the millennium.

The 1999 signing of Slipknot to Roadrunner Records led to changes within Mushroomhead. The band felt their image had been stolen for financial gain, Mushroomhead “killed” their individual characters. Their once colorful costumes, camouflage and rubber masks, were replaced by a black uniform. Later, cartoon style X marks over each eye were added to further illustrate the death of the group’s image. This X mask design later lead to the “X Face” logo which today is recognised as the band’s iconic symbol. These changes were also reflected on the band’s 1999 release “M3”.

An incident between Mushroomhead fans and Slipknot themselves occurred when Slipknot trekked to Cleveland as part of their tour in support of their debut album, Mushroomhead fans flocked to the concert and peppered Slipknot with batteries forcing them off-stage. In a press conference, lead singer Corey Taylor stated that members of Mushroomhead had encouraged fans to do these acts. Mushroomhead has publicly stated that the band in no way encourages this sort of behavior. In a May 2007 interview in Imhotep.com, singer Jeffrey Nothing stated that the day after the Cleveland incident, his then girlfriend went down to the venue and the members of Slipknot and some of their crew harassed her saying: "You're wearing a Mushroomhead shirt, what do you know?" Nothing went on to say, "The bottom line is: here is our city, our fans support us completely! They felt just as fucked over by these pony "Clowns" as us and they aren't afraid to show it. Welcome to Cleveland bitches.”

Korn

Incidents with Korn happened in 2000 when David Silveria, drummer of the band modeled for Calvin Klein jeans.

After Silveria modeled with the fashion designer it struck a nerve with the band, particularly Corey. Slipknot reacted by burning copies of the ad onstage at several of their subsequent shows (Jay Gordon of Orgy also being one of the models).

It is understood that Korn and Slipknot have since reconciled, as they toured together in 2004 at the UK Download Festival, and members of Slipknot are reported to have said they appreciate what Korn has done for their genre of music and themselves as a band.

At Download Festival 2006, Corey Taylor filled in on vocals for Jonathan Davis when he came down with a serious illness. Later in the summer Corey while touring with Korn on the Family Values Tour 2006 came on stage many times to sing "Freak On A Leash" with Jonathan.

Joey Jordison is also now drumming for Korn as David is on a temporary hiatus.

Internal

Many fans attribute the frequent on-stage scuffles between Shawn Crahan and Sid Wilson to a difference of opinion regarding Sid's polydactyly. Sid's 6th finger (showing signs of mobility) was removed at birth, a procedure he has not regretted or opposed; allegedly Shawn argues that the Sid's parents should have appreciated the way their son (Sid) was born.

Mick Thomson and Jim Root have had minor squabbles in the past.

External links

• Official Website
• Official Myspace
• Slipknot fact site
• Slipknot at All Music Guide
• Template:Last.fm
• Slipknot discography at MusicBrainz