May 29 min read

25 YEARS OF SLIPKNOT

This was written to be assessed as part of my Journalism course. This was in Semester 2 of Level 6 and was for the Undergraduate Major Project, where I created a (primarily) music magazine, aimed at Gen Z.

At the bottom, the page designs for these articles can be found.

THE INTRO:

25 years of Slipknot. Well, Slipknot as we know them at least, from their self-titled release in 1999. A lot has happened in those 25 years (and the 4 years prior when Slipknot Album Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. was released- an album that is no longer even available). The band have faced controversies, scandals, and aside from MFKR released 7 studio albums, they have seen members leave and new members join, as well as the tragic passings of former members; Paul Grey and Joey Jordison.

Join us over the next 8 pages in a deep dive of Slipknot's history; the albums, masks, controversies, scandals, fan experiences and a glimpse at their future.

THE ALBUMS:

MATE. FEED. KILL. REPEAT.

This was the only album released with original lead vocalist, Anders Colsefni, and that was in 1996. Only 1000 copies were made so coming across this one is somewhat of a rarity. The only remaining member from the lineup from this album is Shawn Crahan, known more commonly as Clown. More recently, Anders re-recorded MFKR, but it was released early and without his consent before he had even finished adding the final tweaks to the songs. This is even more of a blow when the only reason Colsefni left Slipknot was because he felt that Corey Taylor was a better Vocalist than he was. They brought Taylor in to sing alongside Colsefni, but it was ultimately the reason he made the choice to leave.

SLIPKNOT

The most recognised ‘first’ Slipknot album and arguably one of the best things to come out of the 90s, this is one of the darkest and most aggressive Slipknot albums. For a band that is primarily nu-metal, this album really leaned more towards death metal, with songs full of explicit lyrics and aggression so present on 19 minute-long, track 15 ‘Scissors’, it has been noted that Taylor almost sounds like he's about to burst into tears. There is also a small nod MFKR on this album, coming in the form of track 1- 742617000027. These numbers are the barcode of MFKR, and the whole song is 36 seconds of a Charles Manson documentary, his quote “the whole thing, I think it’s sick” repeated 21 times.

IOWA

Iowa was the band's 2001 release and is the album from which one of their most listened to songs of all time; People=Shit came from. At this time, Corey Taylor was struggling with alcohol addiction, and other member's drug habits grew out of control. Ironically, this was musically one of their greatest points, as this album was described by well-known critic, John Mulvey as ‘a triumph of nu metal’, receiving platinum certification in the US and Canada. This is widely considered Slipknot's heaviest album- with Taylor recording the vocals for the song Iowa while naked, vomiting on himself and cutting himself with broken glass. Similarly, Ross Robinson, their producer for this album, broke his back in a dirt biking accident only to be back working in the studio the day after. Their explanations? They put their pain into the album because ‘that's where the best stuff comes from’

VOL.3: (THE SUBLIMINAL VERSES)

The Subliminal Verses was originally released in 2004 with a special version coming out in 2005. It was around this time that the band were working on a lot of more individual side projects, and to them, this is what saved the band. There were several months where they didn't speak to each other, and Corey’s drinking got worse, saying: "I would drink from the moment I got up until the moment I passed out." They started work together but this was a dark time in the band's history. At this point, Shawn Crahan worked on a documentary video on the creation of the album and the tour that followed it- called Voliminal: Inside the Nine.

ALL HOPE IS GONE

All Hope is Gone was not released until 2008- leaving a 4 year gap after The Subliminal Verses. Not their darkest album, but it could definitely be described as the most eclectic- mirroring the brutality of their self-titled album and mixing it with the ‘trippy’ aspects of Iowa, while exploring themes of anger, obsession and dissatisfaction. Because of the side projects the members were doing individually, this was when fans first really started seeing them without their masks and from that the rumours started spreading around that they would lose the masks when performing.

It was Shawn that shut these rumours down instantly, saying it would still be Slipknot, just upgraded. This was when they showed off the ‘purgatory masks’, which are giant papier mache heads representing ego. They burned these in the Psychosocial music video, in a way of representing destroying their egos.

.5: THE GRAY CHAPTER

The 17 track, and fifth studio album from Slipknot. This was the first release without Paul Gray and Joey Jordison. Jordison was fired in 2013, and Gray passed away in 2010. The naming of the Gray Chapter was a nod to him. This however was the first album to feature Alessandro Venturella as well as Jay Weinberg- although no one knew their identities until later on. This is also the last to feature Chris Fehn before he was fired in 2019.

The identity of the nude model on the cover art is still unknown, but the photograph was taken by Shawn Crahan several years prior to the recording of the Gray Chapter.

WE ARE NOT YOUR KIND

Coming out five years after The Gray Chapter, We Are Not Your Kind (WANYK), as previously mentioned, this was the first album not to feature Chris Fehn, who was instead replaced by Tortilla Man, or Michael Pfaff, from Shawn Crahans band Dirty Little Rabbits.

This was planned to be Slipknot's first double album, and they recorded a total of 22 songs and 26 interludes. There are only 14 songs on this, with several releases in the following months, like Solway Firth being released in July, Birth of the Cruel in August and Nero Forte that December.

THE END, SO FAR

Slipknot’s most recent album, and their final one with Roadrunner Records. This was also their last one with Jay Weinberg and Craig Jones. There were a few hiccups when this album was released- including misprints on merch where it was referred to as The End For Now, as well as on vinyl copies and cassettes.

Making it even worse, The Dying Song had the wrong artwork on Spotify, which was obviously an easier fix, being online, but still caused confusion among fans. These issues were all caused by someone behind the scenes who didn't double check before the album was released.

SLIPKNOT THROUGH THE DECADES

The question that keeps all Maggots up at night- what would be the definitive order of every slipknot mask, ever to exist ever.

Well, ask, and you shall receive- here is the public ranking of all 69 slipknot masks, including the ones predating their 1999 album, based on the votes of our readers.

(Images at the bottom)

Check the next page to find out who was under these iconic Slipknot looks, and which era they are from!

Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - Iowa
Joey Jordison - All Hope Is Gone
Corey Taylor - Most recent mask (2024)
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - Most recent mask (2024)
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Paul Gray - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - .5: The Grey Chapter
Greg Welts - Pre-1999
Sid Wilson - We Are Not Your Kind
Michael Pfaff, AKA Tortilla Man - Most recent mask (2024)
Jim Root - Iowa
Joey Jordison - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Sid Wilson - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Jim Root - .5: The Grey Chapter
Sid Wilson - Iowa
Corey Taylor - .5: The Grey Chapter
Corey Taylor - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses
Joey Jordison- Iowa
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - All Hope Is Gone
Corey Taylor - All Hope Is Gone
Mick Thomson - .5: The Grey Chapter
Chris Fehn - .5: The Grey Chapter
Chris Fehn - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Mick Thomson - We Are Not Your Kind
Corey Taylor - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Craig Jones - We Are Not Your Kind
Mick Thomson - All Hope Is Gone
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - Pre-1999
Chris Fehn - All Hope Is Gone
Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan - We Are Not Your Kind
Jim Root - We Are Not Your Kind
Jim Root - All Hope Is Gone
Jim Root - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Joey Jordison - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Corey Taylor - Iowa
Mick Thomson - Iowa
Chris Fehn - Iowa
Chris Fehn - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Mick Thomson - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Brandon Darner - Pre-1999
Craig Jones - Iowa
Jay Weinberg - We Are Not Your Kind
Sid Wilson - .5: The Grey Chapter
Joey Jordison - Pre-1999
Sid Wilson - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Alessandro Venturella - .5: The Grey Chapter
Jay Weinberg - .5: The Grey Chapter
Mick Thomson - Pre-1999
Mick Thomson - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Corey Taylor - Pre-1999
Craig Jones - .5: The Grey Chapter
Paul Gray - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Alessandro Venturella - We Are Not Your Kind
Paul Gray - Iowa
Michael Pfaff, AKA Tortilla Man - We Are Not Your Kind
Paul Gray - All Hope Is Gone
Craig Jones - All Hope Is Gone
Sid Wilson - All Hope Is Gone
Craig Jones - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Sid Wilson - Pre-1999
Anders Colsefni - Pre-1999
Jim Root - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Craig Jones - Slipknot (Self-Titled)
Jim Root - Pre-1999
Paul Gray - Pre-1999
Corey Taylor - We Are Not Your Kind
Josh Brainard - Pre-1999
Craig Jones - Pre-1999

SLIPKNOT SCANDALS

Feuding with other bands, satanism allegations, stabbings, lawsuits and even ties to murder, Slipknot are not exactly strangers to controversy.

The Slipknot vs Mushroomhead feud began 25 years ago and started when Mushroomhead fans decided to throw a bunch of items at Slipknot (including a fist sized padlock at bassist, Paul Gray) as they performed in Cleveland- Mushroomhead’s home town. In retaliation, the band started fighting the crowd throwing things at them. It was ironically the bands similarities that caused this- both wore masks and boiler suits, with a bassist who wore a pig mask. The only problem was Slipknots fame was being achieved at a much faster rate than Mushroomhead, despite them being on the scene first. This was only worsened by the fact that Slipknot were signed by Roadrunner not long after Mushroomhead declined the offer- which led to claims that Roadrunner had turned Slipknot into an imitation Mushroomhead. All the way up until 2007, Mushroomhead were calling Slipknot “straight-up frauds”, likening them to “the NSYNC of heavy metal”, something Slipknot continually ignored. In 2010, after the tragic passing of Paul Gray, Mushroomhead publicly and privately reached out to slipknot to offer their condolences, and ever since, the bands have openly quashed any ongoing feud rumours

Possibly the most serious allegation against Slipknot- links to several murders. Although not directly committed by the band, Slipknot have been accused of being involved with several murders; one of these was the Nic Diederichs school slashing in South Africa, where a student wielding a sword killed another student, while wearing a mask and clothes reminiscent of Slipknot drummer, Joey Jordison. There were comments relating this kind of behaviour to satanic music and drugs- and several members of slipknot have openly struggled with addiction, however the head of the local police’s investigative psychology unit commented: “Whenever there is a murder, people jump to conclusions, and always God or Satan told the killers to do it, these notions shouldn't be taken seriously because it is straightforward: someone, of their own free will, can kill another person". This meant that slipknot was, in the police’s eyes, without blame.

Similarly, we have the Satanist rumours most metal bands get at some point in their careers, quite the opposite as even Corey Taylor has described himself as an agnostic, ironically in his book A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven. The entire image of the band revolves around darkness and horror and gore, so of course people are going to link it to sacrilegiousness, wether or not the band itself is promoting that or not.

Moving from allegations to things that definitely happened: Mick’s brother stabbed him in the head with a knife.

Mick Thomson was stabbed by his brother during a drunken brawl in 2015, both intoxicated and clearly not in the best of moods. All is well now though, no charges were filed and Mick made a full recovery, still performing with the band today, although I can’t imagine family gatherings were without some awkwardness for a while after.

THE ANNIVERSARY TOUR: EVERYTHING WE KNOW SO FAR

“I’m not going to live forever, man, neither is everybody else. Things are changing very quickly. I ain’t got no more time to fuck around”.

Those are the words of Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan in a Kerrang! interview about the upcoming 25th anniversary tour. In the same interview he announced that they will be playing their iconic self titled album in full.

The bands shows are known for being mental- the absolute chaos, aggression of music, and the fans lapping up every second of it. It has been expressed by so many how Corey is one of the best frontmen out there, holding the crowd in the palm of his hand.

The one bit of advice fans who have seen them have all agreed on is if you're by the front, be prepared. It's not uncommon for the barriers at the front to break- sometimes even multiple times per show, because it is brutal there.

Slipknot's European leg of the tour will be in December 2024, with tickets for the following places available:

5 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome

6 Dortmund, Germany – Westfalenhalle

8 Stuttgart, Germany – Schleyerhalle

9 Leipzig, Germany – Quarterback Immobilien Arena

11 Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion

12 Paris, France – Accorhotel Arena

14 Leeds, UK – First Direct Arena

15 Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro

17 Manchester, UK – Co-op Live Arena

18 Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena

20 London, UK – The O2