If you are into heavy and alternative metal, you would have definitely heard the Slipknot band who is considered to be the masters of this music genre. This band was started in 1995 in the little town of Des Moines, Iowa, United States by a bunch of nine. The group initially referred to themselves as Painface and the core members were percussionist Shawn Crahan aka Clown, bassist Paul Gray, vocalist Anders Colsefini and guitarists Donnie Steele and Quan Nong.

Later on, the band renamed themselves as ‘The Pale Ones’ and took in new members like Joey Jordinson on the drums and Josh Brainard as the guitarist after the exit of Quan Nong. The first live performance of the band was held in December, 1995 at a local club under the name ‘Meld.’ It was Jordinson who eventually suggested the name ‘Slipknot’ after a song they composed for the team’s demo titled ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’ Soon after their first performance, members of the troupe started to experiment with their style and looks wearing grotesque masks which continue even to this day.

The band members believe that they should keep their faces obscured till their music has been completely evolved and developed and work hard to keep up this image. Slipknot began to start recording at a local studio in early 1996 around the time Donnie Steele left as his Christian beliefs prevented in following the band’s style. Soon after the team was joined by Craig Jones and the group gave its first public performance on April 6th, 1996. There was an initial conflict in the music style over mixing and mastering but finally this heavy metal band bought out its first album ‘Mate. Feed. Kill Repeat on Halloween Day in 1996.

As the popularity of Slipknot grew, there was a lot of change happening within the band with old members leaving and new ones coming in to fill the gaps. The group soon contacted producer Ross Robinson and began getting a lot of offers from record labels. DJ Sid Wilson was bought in who impressed the band members with his interest and enthusiasm and the last person to leave the group was Welts who was replaced with Chris Fehn; after this, the team got signed to RoadRunner Records.

The music influences and style of this band include heavy metal, death metal, black metal and a new genre of music called nu metal, of which they are pioneers. The team members stated that other bands like Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer and Led Zeppelin has greatly influenced their music along with industrial bands like Head of David and Skinny Puppy. The fashion style of the band has also created quite a ripple with the masks and the members refer to themselves as numbers from zero to eight. Though the masks have been a topic of criticism, the members reaffirm that they would like their music to speak instead of their individual images.

Slipknot has given some of the biggest hits in the history of heavy metal and will continue to live in the hearts of all who believe in this music style.

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Category: Entertainment
Keywords: Slipknot, Slipknot band, heavy metal band, nu metal, Slipknot members, Slipknot heavy metal