Slipknot's mix of grinding, post-Korn alternative metal, Marilyn Manson-esque neo-shock rock, and rap-metal helped make them one of the most popular bands in the so-called nu-metal explosion of the late '90s. But even more helpful was their theatrical, attention-grabbing (some critics said ridiculous) image: the band always performed in identical industrial jump suits and homemade Halloween masks, and added to its mysterious anonymity by adopting the numbers zero through eight as stage aliases. Add to that a lyrical preoccupation with darkness and nihilism, and an affectionately insulting name for their fans ("Maggots"), and Slipknot's blueprint for nu-metal success was set.
Slipknot were formed in late 1995 in the unlikely locale of Des Moines, IA; after some early personnel shifts, the nine-piece lineup settled around (in order from number zero to number eight): DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Grey, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler/programmer Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan, guitarist Mick Thompson, and lead vocalist Corey Taylor. The music scene in Des Moines wasn't much to speak of, and the band's big-time ambition was usually met with disbelief and ridicule, which provided the initial spark for its mostly anonymous stage visuals. On Halloween 1996, Slipknot self-released an album called Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., which began to build a buzz around the group once it found its way to several labels. It was picked up for distribution by the Nebraska-based -ismist label, and also caught the attention of Roadrunner Records, which signed Slipknot in 1997. Working with producer Ross Robinson, Slipknot recorded their official, self-titled debut album, which was released in 1999. They gradually built an audience through near-constant touring, working their way up to the summer Ozzfest package tour, which really expanded their audience. Their live shows were a much-discussed hit with metal fans, and the band performed with such energy that Crahan gashed his head open on his own drum kit twice that summer, requiring stitches both times. The tracks "Wait and Bleed" and "Spit It Out" got the band some airplay, but most of the buzz came from touring and word of mouth. Finally, in the spring of 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; the first such album in Roadrunner's history.
The anticipation for Slipknot's follow-up was intense, and many industry observers predicted that it would debut at number one; however, faced with some stiff competition that week, the band's sophomore effort, Iowa, bowed at number three upon its release in 2001. More heavy touring followed, including another, more prominent slot on that summer's Ozzfest. After a long spell on the road, Slipknot took a break while the members worked on side projects. The band set up its own label, Maggot Recordings, and signed a band called Downthesun, whose lead singer had served as Crahan's drum technician. Wilson, meanwhile, began DJing solo under the name DJ Starscream, and Root and Thompson both worked on solo material. Drummer Jordison worked with a side group called the Rejects, where he'd actually served for quite some time as guitarist. Taylor, meanwhile, started a side band called Superego, and also contributed a solo song, "Bother," to the soundtrack of the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man. That May, the band got some amusing press when some of its fans discovered the website of a British crocheting group also called "Slipknot," and flooded the members' in-boxes with excessively rude e-mails. Guitarist Joey Jordison and Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen teamed that summer for the Murderdolls project, while Taylor reformed his old band Stone Sour and released an album. By the winter, Slipknot had still not reunited and Taylor wrote a commentary on the band's website stating that they had not spoken in months, and that they'd rather break up than become "the next Gwar". The statement sparked a quickly resolved minifeud between Taylor and Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus. but it also sent many of the Maggots into a tailspin. By early 2003, Taylor had retracted his comments, and announced plans for a new Slipknot album. That August the entire squad decamped Iowa for LA, where they began work on the new record with producer Rick Rubin. "Pulse of the Maggots" appeared in early 2004 as an exclusive download; it was followed by a full track listing for Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. Slipknot then embarked on a brief tour as a warm-up for their dates headlining Ozzfest that summer. (The group also debuted a fully redesigned third generation of their famous masks.) Subliminal Verses was released in May 2004. It peaked at 2 on the Billboard 200, and the band toured steadily for the next year and a half in support. They released 2-disc live album in November 2005. They have a new release DVD called Voliminal : Inside the Nine proudced and edited by Shaun (The Clown) Crahan *Steve Huey, All Music Guide*
November 30
SLIPKNOT percussionist M. Shawn Crahan recently spoke to MTV.com about the band's new DVD, "Voliminal: Inside the Nine", due December 5. According to Clown, the group's relative inactivity in recent months shouldn't be a source of stress: SLIPKNOT are not down for the count at least, not yet.
"I don't think a lot of people understand this, but we're not a normal band," Clown said. "We are the kind of band that because of its magnitude, it's nine people believes in taking time off between conceptual cycles. So, we just got done with a three-and-a-half-year thing, and we played over 240 shows in 34 countries, and now, we get a break from each other a spiritual, mental, physical break. And when we get back together, it's business, man."
Clown said the band plans to regroup either in late summer or fall 2007 to begin working on new material. Clown added that a few of the SLIPKNOT dudes have been writing, "because that's always going on, because everyone in this band's so creative," and even hinted that some members might be meeting in January to work on tunes together. "We're all alive today, so things are good," he said. "Do we want to get together and make a fourth record? Why wouldn't we?"
[ Source: Blabbermouth.net ]
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August 29
"My humble opinion: The new [STONE SOUR] album 'Come What(ever) May' is incredible. I listen to it every day from start to finish at least twice. I think it's the best record I have heard since REFUSED's 'Shape of Punk to Come' or FAITH NO MORE's 'Album of the Year' or SYSTEM OF A DOWN's 'Mezmerize'. It's a perfect combination of metal riffs, rock grooves, and pop melodies, creating a tight, concise sound that is wholly original. I will still be listening to this record in 10, 20, 30 years, that's how good I think the writing is. The hooks are as infectious as airborne Ebola and there is this sense of urgency throughout, like theyre going to jail the next day. You can feel the energy in the tracks. I love the album from top to bottom, a rare thing these days. My current favorites are '30/30 150', 'Come What(ever) May', 'Silly World', 'Through Glass', 'Socio', and 'Your God'. Get this record."
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August 25
Graham Finney of Planet-Loud.com recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR guitarist Jim Root. A few excerpts from the chat follow:
Planet-Loud.com: Onto the new [STONE SOUR] record ("Come What(ever) May"). What did you want to achieve with it?
Jim: "We've always wanted to do a polished, more thought-out record and this record is more in that direction. The first record was basically a live in the studio record recorded in under month then mixed then put out there. On this record we had more time to work with it, more of a window, we were able to think about the artwork, the track listing and we were able to record sixteen of the thirty-odd songs we wrote. In some ways we were rushed on this record but in others we had time to hash out the demos, the songs and I think we pretty much achieved a step in the right direction of where we want to go as a band with this record."
Planet-Loud.com: Do you think being able to spend more time on this record shaped the way it sounded?
Jim: "Definitely, we seperated everything the drums, the vocals, the guitars. We were able to bring a lot more instruments in and think about everything, we had more time to experiment on this record."
Planet-Loud.com: You had a few guests on this album, like Shannon from GODSMACK. How did that come about?
Jim: "Well, when Roy [Mayorga] joined the band, he came in and did all the drum tracks fourteen tracks in something like five or six days. He had already promised SEPULTURA he would go on tour with them over in Europe so we lost him before the album was completed. We had two songs left to track drums for and we've known Shannon from the AMEN days and he has been a good friend of ours and he is a monster of a drummer so we just invited him in and, like with most things on this album, most things fall into place. It just so happens he was in Las Vegas recording a video for GODSMACK so he came in and played drums on these two songs. I'm glad he did."
Planet-Loud.com: I was going to ask, what do you get out of STONE SOUR that you don't get out of SLIPKNOT?
Jim: "It goes deeper than just music. Someone asked me before do you really need SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR to get your musical opinions out but it goes deeper than the songs and playing them live. You're talking about a whole different set of people and a whole different set of songs. SLIPKNOT is a combination of personalities and egos while STONE SOUR allows me to explore more musical avenues. It gives me a lot of freedom and allows me step outside of SLIPKNOT and look at everything objectively and reassess everything."
Planet-Loud.com: You've described life as a big learning experience what lessons have you learned?
Jim: "I've learned that no matter what you do and who you think you are, life can be taken away at any moment. I've also learned that no matter how bad you have it, it could always be worse. A lot has gone on with us in the past couple of years. I broke my wrist towards the end of the last SLIPKNOT touring cycle which meant I missed a month of touring and at a time when I was feeling similar to the end of the 'Iowa' cycle, I was just aggrevated and over it. I then started thinking what it would be like if it was taken away and, when I had the accident, it was and it's not a good feeling. Having said that, I could say that everything is dismal and we're all aggro and stuff but, you know, life is pretty good at the moment."
Read the entire interview at Planet-Loud.com.
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August 24
Jesse Truesdale of Bonner Springs, Kansas' The Chieftain reports that the investigation of a recent grave robbery in Kansas, where a sheet of SLIPKNOT lyrics was left at the scene, continues.
The ashes of Justin Manning and the urn containing them were stolen from his grave last week. Manning, 17, of Winchester, Kan., died July 25 in a car accident on Interstate 70. The theft was discovered on August 15, along with a note with the lyrics to SLIPKNOT's song "Surfacing", from their 1999 self-titled album.
Detectives on the case are pursuing "multiple leads and interviewing people of interest," Bonner Springs Police Lt. Rick Schubert said.
Since receiving documentation from Manning's family, the charges for the case have been upgraded from criminal desecration of a grave to include the additional charge of felony theft, because the value of the urn and the cost of cremation were more than $1,000.
Manning's mother Angela Bickham said there had been trouble at his funeral, when some of his friends wanted to bury some CDs and a hat with his ashes.
The cemetery sexton who discovered the dug-up grave said there had also been "two or three" other notes lying around the gravesite, but they had blown away in the wind by the time police arrived.
Several days earlier, ropes tied as nooses had also been found at the gravesite.
Read more at www.bonnersprings.com.
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August 17
Jesse Truesdale of Bonner Springs, Kansas' The Chieftain reports that a note containing lyrics to the song "Surfacing" by SLIPKNOT was located near a grave that was found robbed Tuesday morning (August 15) at the Bonner Springs Cemetery.
Kenneth Brooks, sexton of the cemetery, was working at about 11 a.m. that day when he found evidence of a crime unique in his experience.
"The ground was turned up," Kenneth Brooks said, on the recently laid grave of Justin Manning.
Manning died July 25 in a car wreck on I-70 near the I-435 exit when the pickup truck he was riding in rammed a highway sign pole.
The container with the ashes that had been in the grave was taken.
Manning's mother, Angela Bickham, said, "I don't know what I think now. It's unbelievable it's beyond even being able to comprehend how someone can kidnap an urn."
Bickham said she didn't know who could have robbed the grave. There had been some trouble at Manning's funeral, where his friends wanted to bury a hat and some CDs with his urn.
Bickham said she didn't want to name those friends while the police investigation is ongoing.
Read more at www.bonnersprings.com.
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view all 10 posts
orochimaru
SLIPKNOT
ROX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted Jan 14
orochimaru
SLIPKNOT
ROX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted Jan 14
Chaotic Rampage
SlipKnot Is Fucken Sick
posted Jul 12
Death By Chemistry 666
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
come to NZ come to NZ come to NZ
posted Nov 13
Raymond
yes a maggot any way will u try to find wait and bleed
(techno version)its fucking awsome not that the o
rigonal is not i just like it so yea fuckin slipknot
rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted Nov 12
speaker
frfre
posted Oct 24
emo_015
Maggots: Maggots dont just kiss, we make out. Maggots
dont just fore play, we fuck! Maggots dont relax, we
chill. Maggots dont whine like pussies, we scream our
fuckin heads off. Maggots dont talk bad, we talk
shit. Maggots are the people you could ALWAy`z
trust. Maggots are the best mother fuckers Maggots
arent nice, were the shit. Maggots don\'t mess around,
you fuck with us we fuck you up bitch Maggots arent
just friends, we are fuck buddies. Maggots arent cool,
we are awesome mother fuckers Maggots are sexy mother
fuckers u don\'t screw with! Maggotsare blessed when
they are born because now were proud to tell everybody
that we are Maggots! Maggots are...there isnt enough
words that could explain how and who Maggots are-we
love SLIPKNOTand thats all u need to know bitch.
posted Sep 22
emo_015
slipknot is the best! maggot for life!
posted Aug 30