Iowa is probably best known as the middle of nowhere. Most
non-residents consider the corn-and-pig-state a geographical
black hole. Since rock'n'roll's dawning in the early '50's,
Iowa has had no singular voice to put on the musical map.
Naming a significant musical identity from the state is
inarguably a fruitless task; it simply can't be done. However,
nine freaks from Des Moines--draped in industrial coveralls,
surrealistic self-made masks, and an attack that combines
violently regurgitated L.A. neo-metal, death metal, hip-hop,
and downtuned screeching horror--are about to leap upon the
unsuspecting world like a musical of Clockwork Orange. Have you
ever thought about what a messed-up hardcore metal band from
the middle of nowhere would sound like? Ultra-violence only
begins to descibe it... Meet 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

(In human terms that's DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison,
bassist Paul Gray, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root,
sampler Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn Crahan, guitarist Mic
Thompson, and vocalist Corey Taylor, respectively.) Each comes
equipped with not only a frightening visual persona and number
assignment, but a talent on his particular instrument that
combines and collides to form the nine-headed savior/destructor
of modern heavy music dubbed Slipknot. Now, with the tools and
talents
(not to mention complex-yet-infectiously-catchy songs)
that this band holds in its grasp, the world has no choice:
Slipknot has arrived, and you must now decide how to deal with it.
Formed during the latter half of 1995, the band went through
necessary lineup changes to arrive at what they now descibe as
a family unit. All native Iowans, their rather unassuming,
un-happening locale gave the members plenty of space and time
to perfect their unusual take on heaviosity. The band recorded
and distributed the self-released debut Mate. Feed. Kill.
Repeat. in 1996, and the ball hasn't stopped rolling since.
Attracting the attention of a number of labels, Slipknot finally
signed to Roadrunner through noted producer Ross Robinson's
I AM RECORDS imprint in 1997 and entered Indigo Ranch Studios in L.A.
with Robinson to record Slipknot. From the pummeling Sic and the
unforgiving bludgeon of Surfacing to the sublime melodies within
Wait And Bleed and the hypnotizing rhythmic drive of Prosthetics,
Slipknot's vast array of influences comes seamlessly wrapped up in
a 13-song love/hate letter to the outside world. The touring that
will follow is promised to be unlike anything else that's going on
out there. Seeing is believing. So says Shawn Crahan. And it's a
gross understatement of what actually transpires when it all comes
together on stage. Until you hear the sound they create, having
nine members in the band might seem ludicrous. Shawn claims it
couldn't work any other way: We've maintained an excellent
practice schedule for the last three years. Everybody's on time,
everybody's always there, and we always practice as a unit. Our
music is so reliant on each other that if one guy, even the DJ,
is gone, it just wouldn't be our songs without him. Without one
person, something is really, really missing. Everybody has to be
present. Even the littlest things make the songs magical.
Just as striking visually as they are musically, Slipknot stresses
that the visuals do not take precedence over the music. We never
put on the s*it we wear to try and get people into us, says
Joey Jordison. We did it because, after being degraded constantly
for trying to play music or do something in Des Moines, it just
came to be like we were an anonymous entity. No one gave a f*ck,
no one cared, so we were never about our names or our faces;
we're just about music. So we just put it on and it started
gettin' people, and it just started to turn into this big thing.
The music's the most important, though. The coveralls and masks
happened, and for some reason it worked, therefore we had to
kind of continue with it. We got stuck with it. Now that
they're stuck with it, they hardly feel like themselves without
it. Shawn feels that ...the masks are extensions of our
personalities. Everybody's got sort of a tweaked, demented way
about themselves, and we just alter the masks over time. It
feels really, really good when we wear our masks for an hour,
and then afterwards we take it off, and the first thing we do
is go, 'God, what a relief!', but we always seem to put 'em back
on after a show and walk around the place. And the visual
presentation will change over time, just as the music certainly
will. I think things will always be changing with Slipknot.
Everybody grows older every year, and with that you change, and
that's somethin' Slipknot is always going to do. As for the
number assignments they wear on their coverall sleeves, they're
lucky numbers, significant and vitally important to each member.
When choosing them, Everybody fell into a number, says Shawn.
There was not one person in the band arguing over a number. It
was really weird. Thanks to a hefty Ross Robinson production job
on Slipknot, Slipknot's vision, part one, has been successfully
realized. Shawn feels that Robinson was as highly motivated to
work on the record as the band were to work with him. We're a
highly, highly aggressive band, and very seldom do we meet people
who are in the realm of our aggressiveness when we play as a unit,
and Ross took us into the recording room and was throwing punches
at us. He was into it. Ross got up every day and went and worked
out so he could be in shape to do our album. When label reps
and Robinson himself came to Des Moines to check out Slipknot at
their best
(on stage), the members were left with little to do
for after-show entertainment than go to local strip clubs. After
hosting guest after guest, the band were completely burnt out.
Now, nobody in Slipknot ever wants to step inside a strip club
again
(it's Des Moines's leading form of entertainment, incidentally).
Shawn grunts in disgust: Fuck the strip bars. Fuck taking anybody to
strip joints. We got s*it to do. The shit is wrapped up in a pretty
little package called Slipknot. It's the discordant sound of the middle
of nowhere, a terrain where Slipknot is jester and king...