Slipknot 10th Anniversary Today

Hiding behind crude Halloween masks and boiler suits, they didn’t fit in. They were too heavy for nu-metal, too weird for hardcore, and too violent for radio. Tracks like (sic) and Eyeless opened with percussion batteries that sounded like a tool shed being thrown down a staircase. Corey Taylor’s vocal range—shifting from a whisper to a guttural roar in seconds—was unlike anything heard before.

We look back on that anniversary now not just as a celebration of an album, but as a celebration of a brotherhood that would soon be fractured by death. It stands as the final chapter of Slipknot’s "golden era" with Paul Gray and Joey Jordison. slipknot 10th anniversary

The album was produced by Ross Robinson, the so-called "godfather of nu-metal," but he insisted this wasn't nu-metal. "It was violence," Robinson later said. By the time the Wait and Bleed music video hit MTV, the mask was no longer a gimmick; it was a necessity. The band was anonymous, but the pain was universal. Leading up to the Slipknot 10th anniversary in June 2009, the band was at a crossroads. Two years prior, they had released All Hope Is Gone , which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. They were headlining Download Festival. They were giants. But founding bassist Paul Gray was struggling with addiction (tragically, he would pass away a year later in 2010). Hiding behind crude Halloween masks and boiler suits,

The 10th anniversary reissue, released on September 9, 2009 (9/9/09—a date numerologists loved), was a victory lap and a memorial rolled into one. Fans who purchased the "10th Anniversary Edition" weren't just getting a remaster. They got a two-disc digipak that became an instant collector's item. Disc one featured the original album remastered, but the real treasure was Disc two, titled Live from Download 2009 . Corey Taylor’s vocal range—shifting from a whisper to