What's the deal with Slipknot?
 

I'm really digging the IOWA CD, but was just wondering what their story was.

They seem, um...bizarre. :)

It's their schtick. They dress up in funny costumes and act all scary and the spooky kid teenagers eat it up.

They have the same deal as....

Alice Cooper
Genesis (Peter Gabriel 70's era)
Kiss
GWAR
White Zombie/Rob Zombie

The deal is: Theatrics. Turn a "concert" into a "show"

They are are nine guys from Iowa that started a band. and wanted it to be about they're music and not be judge by they're looks. thats why they all where masks and jumpsuits and are identified by numbers(0-8). At least that the reason they give.

Also, they have quite a few progressive tendencies musically. Some of the stuff is written very well.

Thanks for all the replies.

I wasn't sure what to make of these guys. :)

But they seem to be a very talented metal band.

I've heard this before and always thought it kind of defeated the purpose. The masks will take away from they're physical looks, but now they'll be known for the masks and the numbers. Seems strange to me.

I think slipknot's first release was ok, I like the heavily precussive beat to most of their songs. Haven't heard anything off of Iowa yet though.

I saw them a couple weeks ago and the show was ok. Too much "Show" and not enough MUSIC IMHO..... They got thes silly clowns that do NOTHING worthwhile onstage and just look stupid.

The lead singer does this idiotic thing were he calls down the cheap seats and it gets kinda scary...... I used to work at an ARENA and the sight of all these punkasses running at you to get to the floor jumping barracades and pushing people into rails and walls is a scary sight.

Those idiots could've (and probably did in some areas) caused some REAL damage to security and the ushers....and most of all ME!!!!!

KISS did it better....

Wow, seems like everyone is agreein their music is good, but their "image" sucks.

They're kind of a GWAR/Devo cross with liberal doses of Faith No More.

I think that their music is very good.. but their image seems pretty cheesy IMHO

Agreed. 100%

Slipknot Stretches For Third Album

"People are either going to love this or hate it," Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor says of the band's as-yet-untitled third Roadrunner album, due in May. "We've never been a middle of the road band, and we're either going down in history or going down in flames with this." Having enlisted Rick Rubin to produce the album, the band is working for the first time without producer Ross Robinson. Taylor said the difference between the two producers has been noticeable.

"Where Ross is with you all the time, Rick just leaves you to your own devices, then comes in, takes a listen to things, and says 'You're going the right way,' or 'Why don't you try this?'" Taylor says. "But at the end of the day, they're both going for the vibe, what people are going to feel. A good producer is a fan of music, and knows what people are going to feel."

Taylor says Rubin pushed Slipknot into directions they hadn't been before. "Lo and behold, we had some really good slow stuff, and some good three-part harmonies in us. But at the same time, we've still got the metal, the same double bass and percussion, the same crazy noises coming out of Sid [Wilson] and Craig [Jones]. Not to mention, this is probably the best guitar playing that Mick [Thompson] and Jim [Root] have ever done. This album has everything, and it will, I hope, become everything. Right now, it's probably the best thing I've ever heard."

Although the album took six months to record, Taylor says it was worth the wait. "The fire's there, the darkness is there, and the craziness is there, but it's also mature, and it's sonically the best-sounding thing we've ever done," he says. "We're taking a lot more chances, but still staying true to what we do. borrowing not only from our metal roots, but from our rock roots, and our Pink Floyd roots. You can hear influences of everyone from Slayer to Amen to King Crimson."

Since the 2001 release of Slipknot's sophomore album, "Iowa," the nine-piece act has dabbled in other pursuits. Four of its members were in side projects, including Taylor's Stone Sour. When the band reconvened in September, "Some of us hadn't seen each other in a year, and there was some wariness as to whether or not we were actually going to be able to do this again," Taylor says.

"But once we reconnected, it was like 1998 again, going and doing the first album, feeling the excitement, being stoked, and not knowing what was going to happen the next day. I think we all needed to feel that we did miss playing together, we did miss each other, and we did miss writing together."

The new album was recorded in a mansion that once belonged to magician Harry Houdini. "The mansion is brilliant when you're making an album, but it's a little weird when you're trying to sleep," Taylor says.

That weirdness included a ghost sighting. "The thing about ghosts is when they manifest, they take on two different forms," Taylor says. "They either take on the human ethereal form, or they take on the form of an orb: round, white spheres that you can sometimes see in the air. One night, the thermostat in my room turned itself up from 65 to 75. And at the exact second it did that, I had taken a picture of one side of the room, and caught two orbs on film right next to the thermostat. To make sure it wasn't a flare, I took another picture, and they were gone. A split second later, brand new batteries that I'd just put into the camera were dead."

Slipknot will road test the new material on the Jagermeister Music Tour, kicking off March 30, and on this summer's Ozzfest. And while a band that wears uniforms and masks can hardly be called subtle, Taylor says Slipknot will be bringing the show down a notch or two.

"With 'Iowa,' there was just so much stuff that we had to take with us, that in my opinion, it took away from the band itself," he says. "People forgot why we made a name for ourselves as a live band in the first place, which was basically all nine of us on a stage going apesh*t. Basically this is us stripping it down and coming back and giving it to you the way it is. We're going back to go forward." The tour also features Fear Factory and Chimaira.

There's been conjecture that the next album might be the band's last, which Taylor doesn't dismiss. "It still may be the last album, but we're not thinking about that anymore," he says. "We're thinking about going out on the road, playing for a bunch of our friends and getting the album out. Then we'll take a break, go do our respective stuff and get together and see if we're still into it."

from [BILLBOARD.com]

Cheesy? Perhaps. But I've seen them live twice and all the costumes/masks stuff kinda fits qute good to their live performance, IMO.

whoa, talking about bringing back a dead thread!

I liked them at that awards show a few years back where they all looked like they were shot in the forehead.

Never liked their music... just liked that idea. Very... interesting.

Wrong band, that was Mudvayne, which a lot of people tend to compare, but in my opinion Mudvayne is heads and shoulders above Slipknot lyrically and musically. I really like Mudvayne, but I can only listen to Slipknot when I'm in that certain mood (IE pretty pissed off or depressed.) But usually in that case, I just listen to Pantera first...

I'm the same way. When I do feel the need to listen to metal like this, which is not often at all, I'll throw on some Pantera as well.

I guess Im just getting old, because the music I listened to 4/5 years ago just does not seem appealing at all...ie bands like Slipknot.

Yeah its strange because its b.s. Whatever band member said that is talking out of their ass. They knew exactly what they were doing when they put on those masks.

I knew a few of these guys before they hit it big, they weren't psychos or anything. Corey Taylor's wife lived under my best friend's piano for a summer. I had a huge crush on her.

That's a pretty cool coincidence. Is she really hot?

Anyway, the whole mask thing is a gimmick, whether they admit it or not. I have a feeling it started out as a small inside joke type thing just for shits and giggles when they were small time, then turned into a staple when they realized that people associated them with that image. Mudvayne went through a similar thing, and always admitted that they do it to get a laugh and that they just decided to dress up one day and thought it was cool. They don't do it anymore and are probably taken more seriously because of it. I think they might have realized that the costumes were probably attracting the wrong types of fans for their subject material, but what do I know.

Yeah, in a pixyish way that's hard to explain.

Thanks for the heads up... my bad.

Which guys did you know? My friend here in AZ was friends with Corey Taylor in Iowa. Maybe you know my friend.

they were a mask cause Corey Taylor looks like a little girl without it!!