Slipknot

Slipknot formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995, assembled from the local metal scene by percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan, bassist Paul Gray, and drummer Joey Jordison. What began as a chaotic side project hardened into one of the most distinctive acts in heavy music: a nine-piece band in which every member wore a grotesque, individually designed mask and answered to a number rather than a name — 0 Sid Wilson on turntables, 1 Jordison on drums, 2 Gray on bass, 3 Chris Fehn on percussion, 4 Jim Root and 7 Mick Thomson on guitars, 5 Craig Jones on samples, 6 Crahan on percussion, and 8 Corey Taylor on vocals. The uniform jumpsuits and anonymity were both theater and thesis, presenting the group as a single hostile organism rather than a collection of personalities. Their self-titled debut arrived on Roadrunner Records in 1999, produced by Ross Robinson. Fusing death metal, hardcore, hip-hop turntablism, and industrial percussion, it sounded like nothing else on radio, and songs like "Wait and Bleed", "(sic)" and "Surfacing" pushed it to multi-platinum status and made Slipknot the most talked-about new metal band in the world. Iowa followed in 2001 and remains their most extreme record — bleaker, faster, and openly hostile, tracked amid internal collapse and near-constant infighting. It topped the UK chart and reached No. 3 in the US while refusing every commercial concession. Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), released in 2004 with Rick Rubin producing, broadened the palette with melody and acoustic textures without softening the core. It yielded "Duality", "Vermilion" and "Before I Forget", which won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2006. All Hope Is Gone (2008) gave the band their first US No. 1 album. The band's trajectory was shattered on 24 May 2010, when Paul Gray was found dead of an accidental overdose. Gray had been the group's musical anchor and emotional center, and his loss nearly ended Slipknot outright; the members spent years unsure whether continuing was tribute or betrayal. Further turmoil followed when Jordison was fired in late 2013 amid a bitter public dispute, and he died in July 2021 at 46 from complications of a neurological illness, leaving the founding lineup permanently unrecoverable. .5: The Gray Chapter (2014) was the grief record, titled for Gray and written in his absence, and it went to No. 1. We Are Not Your Kind (2019) was their most texturally adventurous album, also debuting at No. 1, and The End, So Far (2022) closed out their long Roadrunner tenure with their most exploratory material yet. Lineup churn has been a constant: Chris Fehn's acrimonious 2019 exit and lawsuit, Craig Jones's 2023 departure, drummer Jay Weinberg's abrupt dismissal that same year, and the arrival of Eloy Casagrande. Through all of it, Slipknot have remained arena and festival headliners worldwide, with their own Knotfest brand and tens of millions of records sold — genuinely one of the biggest metal bands on earth.