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 shit
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 fuck, 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 shit 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...
MaIn