Slipknot

Slipknot is undoubtedly one of the strangest bands in modern music. It was even formed twice. For the first time it happened in 1992, when three friends, drummer Shawn Crahan, vocalist Anders Colsefini and bassist Paul Gray, decided to form the band. Shortly after, they split up and formed the band again in 1995. They started to perform in their native town Des Moines, Iowa, under the name of Meld that was soon changed to Slipknot. Musicians came to an idea of wearing masks when Shawn Crahan spent one of the rehearsals wearing clown's mask. "It's our way of becoming more intimate with the music. It's a way for us to become unconscious of who we are and what we do outside of music", explains Corey Taylor. Soon the same story repeated with uniform jumpsuits – this part of the band's image was also invented by Crahan.

At the same time, current members were gradually joining band one by one. On Halloween, October 31, 1996, Slipknot self released their first album Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. Later that year, Slipknot had returned to the studio having developed new material, which demanded more vocal melody, so they recruited Corey Taylor. But for a long time record labels were refusing to work with Slipknot due to their image. Finally, the band managed to sign contract with Roadrunner Records and release self-titled album on June 29, 1999. It was faster and heavier than their previous record. The album was welcomed both by old fans and pepople who heard about Slipknot for the first time, and became commercial success. Next album, Iowa, appeared in stores on August 28, 2001. It was even heavier, representing the band's turn towards black metal. But it also became commercial success.

After release of Iowa, band members started their solo projects – for example, Taylor and guitarist Jim Root revived their band Stone Sour, drummer Joey Jordison joined Murderdolls and so on. Considering the fact that Slipknot planned to release new album in the end of 2002, fans came to a conclusion that the band has split up. However, Slipknot gathered in late 2003 to record new album Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses), which was released on May 24, 2004. It became a commercial success, despite the fact that it was much more experimental and not as heavy as Slipknot previous records, so some old fans were dissatisfied with this album. The title Vol.3 was chosen to show that it is the band's third album, because Slipknot do not consider Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. as an album which "represents" the band. Slipknot latest album All Hope Is Gone was released on August 20, 2008. It became even more experimental than Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses), with more acoustic guitars and melodic vocals. Music video on the first single Psychosocial also revealed musician's new masks and uniforms. "It's new part of our history", stated Crahan. In 2009 the musicians issued the record Slipknot (10th Anniversary Edition), dedicated to Anniversary of their record titled Slipknot. That album includes the old songs and many bonus-tracks and remixes.