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Slipknot were brought together by Paul and Shawn along with Anders Colsefni (ex-singer) in Des Moines, Iowa in 1995. The
band has been through many changes since then to reach the current 9 member status it has now. Slipknot consider themselves
as a family unit and each of the nine members are assigned a number between 0-8. The group mascarade the rock scene in their
individual masks, each representing a personality, and there draping jumpsuits. Rather than hiding themselves, Slipknot feel
they are showing their true personalities and inner selves with the masks which also add to the flavour and intensity of the
music due to the sheer awkwardness of the masks. The band consists of 3 percussionists, 2 guitarists, 1 bassist, 1 DJ, 1 sampler
and 1 lead singer, the complex heavy metal sound, mixed with just about anything you cant do with a guitar, drums
bass or even an empty keg, has been matched by no other and following the release of Mate Feed Kill Repeat. Slipknot
has been climbing and climbing, gaining new fans and support with the release of the self-titled albumalong with Iowa and
VOL 3: sublimina verses which all stormed to platinum status. Nine guys? That cant work? In fact it works perfectly! And now
Iowa has been placed back onto the map.
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Meet 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. (In human terms that's DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison,
bassist Paul Gray, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn Crahan, guitarist
Mick Thomson, and vocalist Corey Taylor, respectively.) Each comes equipped with not only a frightening visual persona and
number assignment, but a talent on his particular instrument that combines and collides to form the nine-headed savior/destructor
of modern heavy music dubbed Slipknot. Now, with the tools and talents (not to mention complex-yet-infectiously-catchy songs)
that this band holds in its grasp, the world has no choice: Slipknot has arrived, and you must now decide how to deal with
it.
Formed during the latter half of 1995, the band went through necessary line-up changes to arrive at what they now
describe as "a family unit." All native Iowans, their rather unassuming, un-happening locale gave the members plenty of space
and time to perfect their unusual take on heaviosity. The band recorded and distributed the self-released debut Mate. Feed.
Kill. Repeat. In 1996, and the ball hasn't stopped rolling since. Attracting the attention of a number of labels, Slipknot
finally signed to Roadrunner through noted producer Ross Robinson's I AM RECORDS imprint in 1997 and entered Indigo Ranch
Studios in L.A. with Robinson to record Slipknot. From the pummelling Sic and the unforgiving bludgeon of Surfacing to the
sublime melodies within Wait And Bleed and the hypnotising rhythmic drive of Prosthetics, Slipknot's vast array of influences
comes seamlessly wrapped up in a 13-song love/hate letter to the outside world. The touring that will follow is promised to
be "unlike anything else that's going on out there. Seeing is believing." So says Shawn Crahan. And it's a gross understatement
of what actually transpires when it all comes together on stage.
Until you hear the sound they create, having
nine members in the band might seem ludicrous. Shawn claims it couldn't work any other way: "We've maintained an excellent
practice schedule for the last three years. Everybody's on time, everybody's always there, and we always practice as a unit.
Our music is so reliant on each other that if one guy, even the DJ, is gone, it just wouldn't be our songs without him. Without
one person, something is really, really missing. Everybody has to be present. Even the littlest things make the songs magical."
Just as striking visually as they are musically, Slipknot stresses that the visuals do not take precedence over
the music. "We never put on the shit we wear to try and get people into us," says Joey Jordison. "We did it because, after
being degraded constantly for trying to play music or do something in Des Moines, it just came to be like we were an anonymous
entity. No one gave a fuck, no one cared, so we were never about our names or our faces; we're just about music. So we just
put it on and it started gettin' people, and it just started to turn into this big thing. The music's the most important,
though. The coveralls and masks happened, and for some reason it worked, therefore we had to kind of continue with it. We
got stuck with it."
Now that they're stuck with it, they hardly feel like themselves without it. Shawn feels that "...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. It feels really, really good when we wear our masks for an hour, and then afterwards we take it off,
and the first thing we do is go, 'God, what a relief!', but we always seem to put 'em back on after a show and walk around
the place." And the visual presentation will change over time, just as the music certainly will. "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."
As for the number assignments they wear on their coverall sleeves, they're lucky numbers, significant and
vitally important to each member. When choosing them, "Everybody fell into a number," says Shawn. "There was not one person
in the band arguing over a number. It was really weird."
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