Craig Jones

Craig Jones — number 5 — was responsible for Slipknot's samples and keyboards between 1996 and 2023, and was the quietest member in the band's history in the literal sense. In almost three decades of activity, Jones gave virtually no interviews, did not speak in public and took no part in the group's media appearances. His mask, covered in long metal spikes and with no opening for the mouth, is the exact visual formulation of that: he existed on stage as a presence, not as a person. In a group where Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan speak openly and often, that absolute silence was part of the mythology. Musically his function is among the hardest to notice and the most decisive. The samples, noises, distorted voices and electronic layers that open and permeate the tracks are his — the material that turns a heavy record into something uncomfortable. Much of what makes Slipknot sound disturbing, and not merely violent, passes through that layer. He was in the band from before the first album, recorded the whole classic discography and left the group in 2023, without a public statement of his own.