Junk Beer Kidnap Band (Taylor's solo career back-up band)
Will Haven (Fehn, as Bassist)
Hail! (Supergroup involving Paul Gray; going on without him)
Slipknot is a Nu Metal/Heavy Metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, known for their masks, nine-person membership, identical jumpsuits, and chaotic live performances. Each member is given a number from 0 to 8 (in the order that each member joined the band). They're sometimes referred to collectively as The Nine.Members:
742617000027 (the UPC number for their EP Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.) and its accompanying barcode are a standard decoration on their jumpsuits; "742617000027" is also the title of the first track on Slipknot.
Root and Thomson. Root is actually a little taller, but lanky; Thomson is bulkier.
Inverted with Jordison, who is by far the shortest member of the band.
Black Sheep Hit: "Snuff" from All Hope Is Gone is a slow, mournful ballad that sounds very different from Slipknot's usual stuff. It went on to become Slipknot's most successful single ever, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Wilson is very skilled as a turntablist and is famous outside of Slipknot as DJ Starscream...but he's frequently gotten into fistfights with Crahan on stage, and broken Fehn's drum kit with his headbanging. He even broke both his feet by jumping from a piece of equipment, which Taylor later poked fun at by yelling "You broke your fucking feet, Sid!" while Wilson was on stage in a wheelchair.
Crahan hits everything, lights himself on fire, does backflips off equipment and has managed to bruise his pelvis and break his collarbones in the process, and more.
The Faceless: Photographs of Jones without his mask on are exceptionally hard to come by. Crosses with The Voiceless and/or The Quiet One as you can see below.
Garfunkel: Fehn originally wanted to be a drum tech; his early years were mainly spent as 'the oft-hazed new guy', even though Root was newer.
Genre Shift: Slipknot started out as a Nu Metal band, but with their album All Hope Is Gone have moved into more of a Groove Metal direction.
Limited Wardrobe: The jumpsuits, although when All Hope Is Gone came around each member came up with a unique costume design, as can be seen in the current page image. They now bounce back and forth between these getups and the jumpsuits.
Loads and Loads of Characters: Not as badly as Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but still...nine people is an awful lot, especially for rock bands. It doesn't help when people still question if Jones actually does anything.
Long Runner Line Up: Believe it or not, they fit. The band was Sid Wilson, Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor from 1999 (when Root replaced Josh Brainaird) to 2010, when Paul Gray died.
The Merch: In perhaps one of the more ill-thought moves of their career, the band launched their own clothing line in 2008, titled Tattered and Torn after the song (a rather unfortunate name to be sure). Taking many cues from the Affliction brand, T&T doesn't explicitly specialize in Slipknot merch, but many designs. These are sold at HotTopic...
Mondegreen: "I wonder how why you can't see/Inside Michelle
"Before I Forget" will be making a comeback... on Rock Band 3 with Pro-mode*
Actual strings
guitar playing and two added cymbals.
As of December 2012, there are only 2 of over 2100 Harmonix-charted songs that have never been full-comboed on guitarnote hitting 100% of the notes without overstrumming or mishitting. "Pulse of the Maggots" is one of the two.
Pig Man: Gray's mask during the Slipknot days was a pig head with a padlock in the nose.
Public Medium Ignorance: They don't and have never played Death Metalnote though it does show up in some of their influences. Yet they've somehow become the public face of extremity in metal.
The Quiet One: Jones both uses and subverts this. While he can be chatty and usually talks to fans after concerts, he typically doesn't show up for group interviews or, if he does, usually only answers the question of what he would be doing if he weren't in a band: he would be out driving a forklift somewhere, or out killing people. It's been insinuated by the other band members that he is simply a very private person who is uncomfortable with fame and has cultivated a standoffish persona in an effort to get people to leave him alone.
Real Men Wear Pink: Crahan showed up to the 48th Grammys to accept Slipknot's award for "Before I Forget" wearing the only thing he could call fancy clothes: a pink jumpsuit.
Special Guest: They make an appearance in the 2002 remake of Rollerball and are playable characters in the PSP shooter, Infected. This is a game about mowing down hordes of zombies. As Slipknot.
Spell My Name with an S: While he doesn't seem to be bothered too much by it, Mick's last name is spelled "Thomson", not "Thompson" with a P or any variations thereof.
Spikes of Villainy: ...sort of. All of Jones' masks have had long spikes as part of their theme.
The Digipak special edition accompanying it (contains two bonus tracks and two demos). The hidden track "Eeyore" originally appeared after the final song "Scissors", while this version contains "Eeyore" after the final bonus track "Despise" (this version of "Scissors" is edited to include only the basic song).
The reissue months later after the copyright controversy concerning the song "Purity" (the lyrics were inspired by a copyrighted story which Taylor thought was true).
The Digipak special edition accompanying this version. Excludes "Purity" and the sample drama "Frail Limb Nursery" accompanying the removed track. This version includes "Get This", a faster version of "Spit It Out", and a version of "Wait and Bleed" mixed by producer Terry Date, along with a live performance of "Surfacing" as the final track. "Eeyore" is once again moved to a different track ("Surfacing" live) in order to appear at the very end of the album (appears after "Porn and Weed", which itself appears after "Surfacing" Live, making for three hidden tracks in a single track).
The 10th Anniversary Edition is effectively the definitive edition. It contains nearly every song mention above, including "Purity" ("Frail Limb Nursery" was not included, possibly because there literally wasn't enough room for it on the CD); "Eeyore" is finally made into a separate track (placed in the middle of the album). This edition contains "Snap" (a song only released on the demo version), three new remixes for "Wait and Bleed", "Surfacing" and "(sic)", and a live DVD.
To the point, a true 'Maggot' has bought this album three times: Original (contains "Frail Limb Nursery"), the reissue bonus edition (contains "Surfacing" live and "Porn and Weed") and the 10th Anniversary Edition (contains everything). Word to the wise, go download it instead.
You Are Number Six: Subverted. While they do use the numbers as monikers, every fan knows the members' names and they're not really secretive about it.
Their music provides examples of:
Album Title Drop: Twice in All Hope is Gone, both for the title track and during the opening track ".Execute."
Angrish: Not a completely straight example, but the sheer rage present in some of the songs can cause Taylor to mumble or become incomprehensible. Can overlap with Careful With That Axe.
Based on a True Story: "Purity", or so Taylor thought. (The story turned out to be a hoax.)
Cluster F-Bomb: Slipknot and Iowa were rife with cursing. In contrast, All Hope is Gone had just enough to earn a Parental Advisory label, and The Subliminal Verses was almost curse-free due to Taylor getting tired of claims that he couldn't write lyrics without profanities.
Everything Is an Instrument: Crahan + baseball bat + beer keg = instant percussion. Also, in one scene in the 10th anniversary DVD, Crahan is shown walking down a hallway dropping a metal pipe on the floor in a rhythmic pattern.
Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Softer songs a 6, softest songs a 5 and most songs a 7-8. On a bad day (in other words, good) they'll write something in the range of 9.
New Sound Album: From Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses onward, they began to use more traditional and melodic metal song structures (including several acoustic ballads), began to incorporate guitar solos and did not rely on electronics as heavily.
Number of the Beast: "The Heretic Anthem" starts with an electronic voice counting "8, 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...", then continues throughout the chorus.
If you're 555 then I'm 666!
Obsession Song: Both versions of "Vermilion", although more so the first. Also: "The Nameless", "Iowa", "The Virus Of Life" as well, in a somewhat...rape-ier kind of way. Not to mention "Gehenna" on All Hope is Gone, as well as "Prothestics" on the self-titled album. Corey enjoys writing about obsession.
"Danger, Keep Away" although it's kind of hard to tell from the Indecipherable Lyrics.
Taylor acknowledges and confronts this in the Stone Sour song, "Freeze Dry Seal", admitting that while he may not be a flowery poet, that doesn't make his lyrics (and his beliefs) any less real. Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped at its best.
Surprisingly Gentle Song: Obsession Song or not, "Vermillion Pt. 2" is a very slow and gentle track that those more familiar with the band's nu-metal side and aggressive reputation would not have expected.note In fact, it's the song that inspired the trope. Also, "Circle" and "Snuff".
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