A brief history

After being formed in late 1995, Slipknot went through a few lineup changes so they could all act as a "family unit". Their debut album, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., attracted the attention of various record labels. Finally they signed up with Roadrunner, and released what is generally accepted as their real debut album, Slipknot, last year. A single, Wait and Bleed, was released on February 28th 2000, and charted. However, it was not true to the album, and had been toned down for airing on radio, which provoked comment from magazines and fans.

The band

Slipknot are a relitively new band in the HM scene. Formed in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, their music is a combination of neo-metal, death metal and hip-hop. Their music has provoked outrage from metal fans, yet also earned them a massive throng of fans.

Their music is completely original, like their image. To some, seeing nine Americans in industrial suits and masks, playing some of the most radical and outragous music you'll have heard this decade, will be rather off-putting. Off-putting it has been, and Slipknot have attracted a lot of flak for this. Drummer Joey Jordison claims that their outfits are due to their anomnity in Iowa. "No-one gave a f***, no-one cared, so we were never about our names and faces". This also explains why each member can be summed up by their assigned number.

Slipknot are:

0 (Sid Wilson on turntables)

1 (Joey Jordison on drums)

2 (Paul Gray on bass)

3 (Chris Fehn on percussion)

4 (James Root on guitar)

5 (Craig Jones, sampler)

6 (Shawn Crahan on percussion)

7 (Mic Tompson on guitar)

8 (Corey Taylor on vocals)

The masks, the music, their ideas and their close-knit nature mean a lot to Slipknot. Shawn (6), says:

"The masks are extensions of our personalities. Everybody's got sort of a tweaked, demented way about themselves, and we just alter the masks over time."

"I think things will always be changing with Slipknot. Everybody grows older every year, and with that you change, and that's somethin' Slipknot is always going to do."

"Everybody fell into a number. There was not one person in the band arguing over a number. It was really weird."

Despite their initially off-putting looks, music and nature, Slipknot care about their fans and their music. They have strong opinions on the state of music today, so strong they'll not be found in an official article. They are a breath of fresh air in today's stagnant pop music scene.