History Music / Slipknot

* ''{{S|elfTitledAlbum}}lipknot'' (June 29, 1999)

* {{Sampling}}: Sampling is featured in many of their songs, courtesy of having a sampler as one of the members. While the samples are mostly from obscure sources, a notably known one is the outro to Music/{{Slayer}}'s "South of Heaven", which was edited and sampled as the intro of "Only One".

* ''Iowa'' (August 28, 2001)

* OneWomanWail: "Unsainted" has this in the beginning of the song before Corey starts singing.

* {{Sampling}}: Sampling is featured in many of their songs, courtesy of having a sampler as one of the members.

* RapRock: Despite Corey Taylor's penchant for talk-singing, the likes of "Snap", "Interloper", "Spit It Out" and "No Life" has him outright rapping.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Alessandro Venturella. The way it just rolls off your tongue is just sublime.

** The cover art for the 10th Anniversary Edition of ''All Hope Is Gone'' is a rendition of the standard one, with doll-like statues replacing the band members in the original and a yellow sky.

* IconicLogo: The nine-pointed star, stylized S, and unique font for the band name.

** Joined the band as Chris Fehn's replacement in 2019, shortly after the recording of ''We Are Not Your Kind''. His identity was officially withheld until a 2022 AMA on Reddit, confirming fans' suspicions.

* AnonymousBand: Zig-zagged. On-stage, the members wear masks and use numerals as aliases, but they don't bother showing their identities to the public, and their side projects usually don't have the same schtick. Only Weinberg, Venturella and Pfaff had their identities left unknown for a while so that fans could guess them.

While the band had always incorporated melodies into their music, notably through Taylor singing instead of screaming/rapping, their early style gave way to more experimentation firmly based in melody, with all of their output from their third studio album (''Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)'') onwards showing explicit influence from genres including {{alternative metal}} and [[AlternativeRock rock]].

** ''Iowa'' had a version of its standard cover art with a reddish-orange tint made for CD reissues of the album. Meanwhile, its 10th Anniversary Edition uses a completely different photo for the cover.

** ''Vol. 3'' had a Special Edition released about a year after its standard edition, which features a second disc including two tracks that were previously cut from the standard edition, a different mix of "Vermilion", an extended version of "Danger - Keep Away", and several live tracks.

* VocalEvolution: On the first two albums, Corey used a mid-ranged throaty shout. For ''Vol 3'', he switched to a higher-pitched, less raspy style. On ''All Hope is Gone'', he utilized a deep Hatebreed-esque bellow. ''.5: The Grey Chapter'' and ''We Are Not Your Kind'' see him returning to the style of his early work.

* ''The End, So Far'' (September 30, 2022; upcoming)

The band's sound began as a mix of heavy metal with shades of more extreme metal styles alongside a down-tuned guitar setup, extensive percussion and turntablism, creating darkness and intensity that is complemented by the band's energy and lead vocalist Corey Taylor's catchy songwriting. The band was and is routinely classified as "{{nu metal}}", a label which they went on record distancing themselves from and claiming was only assigned to them as their rise was simultaneous with that of the genre. The band has self-dubbed their style of music "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment metal metal]]".

Slipknot is also known for their distinct image, with members wearing individual masks and matching jumpsuits, as well as all members in their most famous roster going by a number from 0 to 8. These elements were designed as a way to emphasize the importance of the band's music as opposed to their identities, and as a response to the commercial practices of the music industry at the time. The members were presented as products, with masks instead of pretty faces, coveralls instead of trendy fashion, and numbers instead of names. [[{{Irony}} Ironically]], the masks have gone on to become one of the band's defining traits, with a large aspect of each album era being how the mask of each member changes in appearance, reflecting their change as a person.

** ''We Are Not Your Kind'' has been teased as an "[[VillainProtagonist evil vs. good]]" kind of concept.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Iowa'' is this compared to ''Slipknot'', which in itself is already Darker and Edgier than most nu metal albums.
* DespairEventHorizon: Sid went through one while recording ''Iowa'' after hearing of his grandfather's (to whom Sid was very close) death, as evidenced by the song "(515)", when Shawn let him into the booth and just told him to let it out when Sid told him, which leads to some pretty disturbing screaming and yelling, sounding almost demonic. It helps that his screams are heavily layered, with some tracks even reversed to create a really unsettling effect,

* DespairEventHorizon: Sid went through one while recording Iowa after hearing of his grandfather's (to whom Sid was very close) death, as evidenced by the song "(515)", when Shawn let him into the booth and just told him to let it out when Sid told him, which leads to some pretty disturbing screaming and yelling, sounding almost demonic. It helps that his screams are heavily layered, with some tracks even reversed to create a really unsettling effect,

From left to right: 6, 0, 2, 3, 1, 7, 8, 5, 4]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/960x0.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The band as of 2021.\\
Back, L to R: 4, 5, ?, 7, V, 6.\\
Front, L to R: J, 8, 0.]]

* ''The End for Now...'' (September 2, 2022; upcoming)