100 Artists To See Before You Die: Slipknot

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Nearly three decades since they formed, Slipknot remain one of music’s most unlikely success stories. Imagine the pitch: nine outsiders known by numbers and aliases don Halloween masks and make the most punishingly extreme metal imaginable, with lyrics by turns misanthropic, despairing and outright shocking. “Awesome!” you might think. “Can’t imagine them selling many records, though.”

Wrong! The Des Moines, Iowa collective have shifted more than 30million worldwide (including six Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200) and become one of the most thrilling, sought-after live bands on the planet. No wonder they’ve released three electrifying live albums and five official concert movies. Nothing, though, compares to the chaos of seeing them in the flesh.

What to expect

In short: the unexpected. There’ll be a dude smashing big metal bins with oversized sticks; a circle pit that makes the room spin; and they’ve even been known to rock a bass that shoots out enormous flames. This is not your average night down The Dog And Duck: Slipknot have become a well-oiled machine that is as awe-inspiring as it is simply unstoppable.

“I have so many people telling me right now,” founding member Clown explained to NME back in 2019, “that when they watch the show, they get transcended into some other space and time.” That explains why, when Slipknot’s European tour was announced last December, page views for the band skyrocketed on viagogo by 422 per cent overnight.

It’s safe to assume too that any audience you’re a part of will be an international one. Punters from at least 24 countries are headed to Slipknot’s upcoming London date at the O2 Arena in December, viagogo data confirms – including metalheads from the United States, Germany, Portugal, Turkey, India, Malaysia and China.

Their best moments

TUI Arena, Hannover, Germany, 2019

As the opening strains of early anthem ‘Spit It Out’ ground into motion, countless “maggots” (the weirdly affectionate nickname shared among ‘Knot nuts) instinctively crouched down to the ground. Frontman Corey Taylor often demands they do just this during the track, before he has them jump up as one at his frenzied command.

It’s a trick many artists have replicated, but it’s pretty much a patented Slipknot move. “20 years we’ve been doing this shit,” Taylor chuckled in Hannover, “and it never ceases to fucking amaze me.” And then the place absolutely erupted.

Ozzfest, 1999

This was a watershed moment in the band’s trajectory. Slipknot’s classic self-titled debut studio album wouldn’t be released for another month, but word-of-mouth was so strong that they already appeared halfway up the bill. As fans boggled at Taylor thrashing his dreadlocks from inside that gnarly, grey mask, they knew they were witnessing the start of something.

The O2, London, 2020

Every Slipknot era is marked with new masks: in 2019, they unveiled a set that included Clown’s shiny, mirror-like visage. With a glossier style, they were ready to create chaos with as many maggots as possible. This outrageous arena show saw Taylor instruct fans to sing ‘Wait and Bleed’ like they “wrote it”, while then-new member Tortilla Man threw acrobatic moves. Slipknot brought intimacy and “blissful abandon”, to quote the five-star NME review, even as they reached critical mass.

Their biggest bangers

‘Wait and Bleed’ (1999)

It’s probably still the quintessential Slipknot track: hard as hell, dark and weird, with a melodic hook you just can’t forget. The late Joey Jordison, the band’s drummer until 2013, wrote the bones of the song, with Taylor bolting on a catchy chorus. They performed the hit on UK chat show TFI Friday in 2000, resulting in a legendarily chaotic performance that’s gone down in music history.

‘Duality’ (2004)

In 2004, Taylor told Metal Hammer that the band’s second album, 2001’s ‘Iowa’, was “so dark I can’t listen to it now”. Rick Rubin-produced follow-up ‘Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)’ was a slightly looser affair, with a lead single that recaptured the hookiness of ‘Wait and Bleed’. Altogether now: “I push my fingers into my eyyyyes…”

‘Unsainted’ (2019)

How extraordinary that Slipknot would still be pushing new boundaries and exploring new sounds on their sixth album. ‘Unsainted’, the first release from the masterful ‘We Are Not Your Kind’, features – wait for it –  a vocal choir. And yet it’s somehow as vengeful, moshpit-inciting and furious as anything they’d released at that point.

Setlist study

With their latest album, 2022’s ‘The End, So Far’, Slipknot now have seven eras of sonic mayhem to draw from. They generally batter out around 15 songs, focusing on those precision-engineered to generate as much carnage as possible: horns up for the pitiless ‘Psychosocial’ and the eerie ‘Surfacing’, a track from their debut album that remains in the setlist.

Crowd pleasers ‘Wait and Bleed’ and ‘Duality’ regularly get an airing, too, because Clown and co. know what the people want. All hail the ‘Knot!

Where to see them next

December 2024

14 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
15 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow
17 – Co-op Live, Manchester
18 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
20 – The O2, London
21 – The O2, London

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