Hey everyone, just wanted to make a thread about Slipknot. I personally don't consider them to be entirely nu-metal, which I otherwise dislike as a genre, not even on their debut 1999 album Slipknot. I categorize them as extreme metal, and mildly experimental.

Their debut's influence is primarily nu-metal I will admit, with some influences of thrash metal, and death metal. Not to mention industrial influence, with the sampling and additive percussion.

Their very first release is their famous demo, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat, released in 1996. it features Joey Jordinson on drums, Paul Gray on Bass, Donnie Steele and Joshua Brainard on lead guitar, and Anders Colsefni on vocals. With Shawn Crahan on some additional percussion and backing vocals.

It's definitely their weakest release, although it is a demo. Production-wise it's not too bad, but the writing and lead vocalist is simple, primitive, and mediocre, and lacks their thrash/death metal aggressive sound. Still worth a listen, especially if you're a fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DkHdd9 ... 05CEAD6AF0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate._Feed._Kill._Repeat.


The self-titled track slipknot was rewritten on their 1999 debut as "(sic)", with different lyrics and a much different stylistic approach.

Gently, track two is featured on their second album Iowa with the same title, but different lyrics. Most of the lyrics on Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat are about a role-playing card game the band was a fan of, aside from "Confessions", which is about a father talking to his son.

Tattered & Torn, and Only One from their 1999 debut are featured in demo form.

And Killers Are Quiet was rewritten as the title track of their second album Iowa.

Then in 1999 they released their self-titled debut Slipknot, with Corey Taylor on vocals, Joey Jordinson on drums, Paul Gray on Bass, Mick Thomson and Joshua Brainard on lead guitar (Aside from tracks "Frail Limb Nursery" and "Purity", which features Jim Root instead of Joshua Brainard.) Shawn Crahan and Chris Fehn on additive percussion and backing vocals, Sid Wilson on Turntables, and Craig Jones doing the sampling.

It's primarily nu-metal influenced, although contains elements of thrash metal and death metal. They didn't incorporate any solos on this album.

It's also compositionally, aside from their demo, their simplest album and lacks the more technical aspects of their later work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ARDbW ... GAdt-t2wbj

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipknot_(album)

Then they returned in 2001 with their second studio album Iowa, which consists of the same line-up, although instead of Joshua Brainard, Jim Root is on lead guitar with Mick Thomson. This is a more extreme metal influenced, technical album, and more complex and better written album, although it still contains a prominent nu-metal influence, and there are no solos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L871Dxq ... lvD847gw3S



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_(album)


In 2004, their third studio album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses was released. It contains the same line-up, although it is a much more melodic, experimental release. It features solos on certain tracks, and shows Slipknot's developing sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmvPyy1 ... JNJMj6n4qP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vol._3:_( ... nal_Verses)

After 4 years, they released their fourth studio album, All Hope Is Gone, this is when they started breaking away from nu-metal, it contains a technical, experimental, death metal and thrash metal influence. With even guitar-work influences from Morbid Angel etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX9mBwF ... 6eaGtwzfVc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Hope_Is_Gone

Then after 6 years, they released their fifth studio album, .5 The Gray Chapter. in 2014. Joey Jordinson is replaced by Jay Weinburg, Joey Jordinson left the band a year earlier, and Paul Gray died in 2010 from an amphetamine/heroin overdose in a hotel. Paul Gray is replaced by Alessandro Venturella. The remainder of the line-up is the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18tTyHB ... pM&index=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.5:_The_Gray_Chapter

In 2018, Slipknot released a promotional single titled All Out Life. It features the same line-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PID4TUNCji4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Out_Life

A year later, Slipknot released their 6th studio album, We Are Not Your Kind, this album has the same line-up as their previous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMMJpFv ... g6&index=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Not_Your_Kind


In 2022, they released their seventh album, The End, So Far, which consists of Corey Taylor on vocals, and the same line-up as their previous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46icYYT ... 99HPx8PM9G

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End,_So_Far


And recently this year they released a single titled "Bone Church",

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaVKM3df8bg

Same line-up I believe.

Just really like them as an extreme metal band, that's basically a cross between nu-metal, death metal, thrash metal, and other genres.

They're considerably talented, and I think should be distinguished from other nu-metal bands.

Although, they might not fit a place on Metal Archives.

Man, I seriously hope you didn't do all the digging and writing here all by yourself - exclusively for this place - because I fear that this might have been a waste of time around these plains.

I liked "Iowa" in my early teens because it sounded so extreme to me, but they're an incredibly spotty band and their early formula wears thin quickly. Riff-wise, their newer material is often quite a bit better (and arguably more metal, if you ask me) but even to this day, I'm not entirely sure where to put them.

Maybe this thread should be moved to the off-topic forum instead.

But yeah, I haven't listened to Slipknot for a while now, but their first three albums are still fine for what they are. I feel like once you do grow a bit into the metal genre, their novelty wears off a bit.

Seeing Slipknot on a sidestage at Ozzfest in '97 or '98 blew my mind when I was a teenager, but the novelty wore off years ago.

The reason they didn’t have guitar solos, is because roadrunner records ordered them not to. They wanted them to fit into the nu metal trends, even more.

Obviously, they took influence from Pantera, Prong, Immolation, Mike Patton’s bands, Acid Bath, and Neurosis, all of which are in metal archives. But your post probably isn’t going to get them added here, unfortunately, because the moderators think they aren’t predominantly metal.

For me, they became unlistenable after Joey Jordison was fired. And they’ve admitted that the last few records were just to fulfill the seven album deal they signed in 1999, with roadrunner. I can still appreciate the good stuff.

Dude, just admit you like Nu-metal.

I was never and will never be a nu-metal fan, because to me, that is stuff like Coal Chamber and Korn, or 36 Crazyfists, or shit like that, that maybe I can stomach at most a song or two off of an album, and that is staying a lot.

I was already older when I first heard Slipknot so I never went through a "phase", I was well entrenched into black and death metal by that point, to say nothing of thrash and the NWOBHM movement that was around during my outh.

And yet I found Iowa and onwards highly listenable and rewarding.

I think that they were a band that actually had an identity crisis very early on, but then kinda rode that crisis into their own identity.

I hate their self titled album, save maybe 2 or 3 songs. It was obvious that they were trying to pander to the nu metal crowd at that time. IDK if this was on purpose or label-influenced, but I don't care either way. It's an album that I will never return to.

But everything from Iowa onwards, I return to at least once a year and always enjoy. They can play, the have good ideas, they have chops, and they were miraculously able to change and identity dilemma into a positive, so kudos to that

Wow, I really want to kill everyone at Roadrunner now.

I remember a friend had one of Anal Blast's demos and when Slipknot came out with the self titled he was pretty amused at the sound.

That said, while there are some nu metal influences on that first album, there were equal influences from thrash, death, and avant garde metal as well. Iowa was pretty good but you could tell they were going to move away from the more extreme influences. I really haven't paid much attention after that, but if songs like SIC and People=Shit aren't metal then I don't know what is.

They're metal enough for me. The non-metal stuff is a turn-off which is why I don't listen much to Slipknot. But the shows are good and the setlist does pick the most metal/aggressive and enjoyable songs. Plenty of bands with far less metal content are featured here for some reason.

I revisited Volume 3 recently, which I still consider to be the peak of their career, and there are solid songs and good ideas all throughout the album. However, I strongly disagree with this idea of yours that they had an identity crisis early on and that they resolved it by Iowa and polished their sound onward from that point. All Hope Is Gone is a mess. Far more then anything they did earlier. Maybe they tried too hard on their s/t to be nu-metal, but on AHIG, they are basically directionless. They do not seem to know if they want to be a nu-metal band, or an alternative rock band, and the album is patchy at best. Then they released The Grey Chapter, which is evern worse. By the band's own admittion they had no clue what they were doing at that point, and some of the guys even said they are dissapointed with the end result of that album.

I can't really say much about their next two albums since I basically gave up on them at that point, and even when I tried some of the songs from the newest records, it made absolutely no impact on me and didn't make me want to listen to the whole thing. Plus, the fact that Taylor is a self-absorbed egomaniac who seems to think he's some kind of metal messia or something and the way they treated Jordison, made me lose all interest in their music.

About their inclusion on MA, I don't really care at that point. The mods and admins have to draw a line at some point, and nu-metal being such an obvious borderline case, I can see it going both ways, and I would be fine with either result. I just hope they don't refuse to add them just to save face, since they've been refusing them forever and they wouldn't want to do a 180 on their previous stance or something.

Slipknot definitely had some of the highest peaks of any nu-metal band. Their best songs stand up with any of my favourite music. Unfortunately, I find the albums as a whole to be fairly inconsistent. Vol. 3 is probably my favourite, and I'd say the first four are the most enjoyable. I don't really like much that I've heard after that (aside from Unsainted). On their later material, it feels like they don't want to be metal, nu-metal, or anything even remotely heavy.

Still, I'd go see the band live anytime, and occasionally jam to those first four records. The live album 9:0 is pretty cool too. I don't really need that much Slipknot in one sitting, but it has some of the best versions of many of their songs.

I liked the first album - nothing since. They're great live though.

But you like at least one nu metal band though. I could classify them as groove/nu metal, maybe. They took from groove, death, sludge, and noise and industrial, as well as a lot of grunge, but they definitely took from Korn, who are the inventors of nu metal.* That’s a big influence on them, no merger which album. The way they emphasize simple riffs, and put the complexity into the rhythm arrangements. Even Jordison’s unique style, with its mix of death metal blasts, and tribal industrial beats, he combined two really ungroovy styles, with tons of groove, a real nu metal move. If you don’t like any other bands of it, than that’s fine, just like how some people like Black Sabbath, but not doom metal, or like Metallica, but not thrash metal. But both of those bands are some of the best examples, of those styles that they helped create.

*my unpopular opinion, to offend metal/punk elitists, music snobs, and hipsters, is that Korn popularized nu metal, which, unfortunately, led to all the watered down bands, jumping on the bandwagon, but that the first nu metal album, is actually Souls at Zero, by Neurosis. It has all the features of nu metal, except without vocal hooks, or any attempts at getting on the radio.

Id say the fault there lies with the band, already happy to do what the label tells them to in order to sell the 'product'.

Vol. 3 and Iowa are great, the rest of their albums I don't really care.

OP here, I just wanted to distinguish them from other nu-metal bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Drowning Pool, Coal Chamber, Dope etc. I don't really like any of those bands, even if they have some musical talent and decent musicianship. Even in their early work, such as Iowa, they incorporated elements of thrash metal, death metal, and black metal. They started to include extensive, technical guitar solos on Vol.3: The Subliminal Verses and All Hope Is Gone. And some elements of groove metal. I think some of their more technical, death metal influenced tracks stand up very well to a lot of non nu-metal bands, and I don't think Slipknot is entirely nu - metal, aside from some tracks on their self-titled debut.

I like consider Slipknot to be a decent actual metal band that has elements of nu metal, groove metal, death metal, thrash metal etc. and some other experimentation. There actually pleasurable to real metal fans, unless your a compulsive snob, and I don't know if they'd fit on this sites band section but they really have some integrity and talent to their work, despite being mainstream and commercial.

Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. was a fun, wacky listen. Diverse collection of sounds. Kinda like Mr. Bungle in a way. Other than that, I only ever really liked their song Duality when I was a teenager.

The debut album came out just as I was diving into bands heavier than Metallica, Pantera and the old guard of Priest/Sabbath/Maiden. I had just heard bands like Sentenced, Nevermore, Morbid Angel - I was still FOR SOME REASON drawn to it, even though I hated other Nu metal bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit. The energy felt different.

I played the shit out of that debut record, and so many of those songs are engrained in my metal fandom - even if I never listen to it anymore. Iowa came out a couple years later, and I was super into that one, as well. By the time the third record arrived, I had completely moved on.

I did see them play on Ozzfest in 2004, and I was glad they did so many tracks from the first 2 records and not all new stuff. I think since Iowa, there have only been 2 Slipknot songs I even remotely enjoyed (Kind dug Psychosocial for a while, and still REALLY love All Out Life. That is one of my main go-to running songs that always ignites the runner's high. Proof that they have it in them to create an absolute rager.)

I really have come to like Slipknot over the last few years. They have a ton of great songs: Peope=Shit, Three Nil, Gematria, Unsainted and more. The biggest problem I have with them is that, as a whole, the albums are mostly boring. There are a few good songs sprinkled on each but listening from cover to cover is a chore most of the time.

Still though, love them otherwise. Saw them live last year and holy shit do they put on an amazing show and sound great live. I think, moving forward, they would do really well to just release high quality singles without the pressure of making a full album.

Haven't listened to their latest, but as someone who didn't like them very much even in my younger days, We Are Not Your Kind was a very pleasant surprise. I still spin it every now and again.

I don't consider Slipknot to be metal. This is a common alternative for teenagers. Lemmy was right about this band.

Their first three albums hold a special place for me as they got me into heavier bands (Behemoth, Cradle, Septicflesh). Most of what they did afterward from Grey AHIG have their moments but I don’t play them much, and We are not Your Kind is kind of a diet version of Subliminal (heavier moments but the softer songs aren’t as memorable as Vermillion/Circles). Their newest album is just Terrible and the new single Bone Church is buttrock. I’m comfortable calling them a metal band based off of Iowa

I cherish slipknot, particularly S/T.

100% consider them a metal band.

Great post OP.

IOWA will always be their best album. Even while I was getting into bands like Cryptopsy, this album still held my attention as a fairly unique take on mainstream heavy music. Catchy memorable stuff, to boot. The two it's sandwiched between certainly have their hits. Everything after Vol 3 is okay - kinda boring but whatever. Regardless, Joey was a hell of a drummer.

Slipknot were the band that got me into heavy music. I had been exposed to it previously through various metal songs in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but I distinctly remember being like 12 or 13 and coming across the Disasterpieces concert film, watching it, and being absolutely mesmerized by what I was watching. That DVD not just got me into listening to heavy music, but it also inspired me to want to become a drummer and play music in the first place.

In terms of how I view them musically, the debut and Iowa are very obviously the crown jewels of their discography. Iowa in particular is a legitimately fantastic record, and easily the single best thing to ever come out of nu metal. I personally really enjoy Vol. 3, but I can absolutely see why some do not. All Hope is Gone was the first new album by them for me, and I remember not being able to get anywhere near enough of it when I was in high school. Looking back on it 15 years and almost my entire 20s later, it is still good, but it's very clearly the weakest album they've ever done. It's kinda disjointed and awkward, as they're clearly trying to keep on with "maturing" like they did with Vol. 3, but ironically enough by cutting out much of the nu metal aspects from their sound they end up making an album that's ambitious but kinda boring at the same time. Luckily, .5 corrected that and it ended up being the album they wanted All Hope is Gone to be. We Are Not Your Kind is even better, and it's probably the best thing they've done since Iowa. Even still, I will fully admit that I have not listened to The End, So Far yet, as the singles weren't interesting me enough to want to give it a full listen. Maybe the full thing is similarly great just as most of the rest of their discography is, but I won't know until I finally give enough of a shit to check it out.

Also, while I'm here, I might as well implore you all to give a listen to the Indigo Sessions version of the self-titled album. A few years ago, a metric fuckton of previously unearthed Slipknot material leaked, consisting of demos, full pro-shot live shows, an entire folder of the samples used on MFKR and the self-titled album, etc. One of the things that leaked was an alternate mix of their first album, and it's a fascinating listen. The songs are shuffled around a bit compared to the final album's tracklist, there are multiple instances of studio banter and the members fucking around on their instruments, a few songs are slower than the versions on the final album, among other curiosities.

There's an EP's worth of material from them I find worth listening to, but none of them are post-IOWA. "My Plague" is probably the song of theirs that I revisit the most, because that riff is just a good solid gut punch and the clean vocal chorus is the most flowing one they've done (in terms of harsh vocals per verse to cleans on the chorus, the transition is perfect).

That all said, I haven't cared for them in over 20 years, but 13 y/o Acid was all about that self-titled album until discovering death metal.