Heavy metal band Slipknot is not an outfit that seems to do things halfway.
Formed in Des Moines, Iowa, members of the nine-piece group were all-in from the start. Hiding their faces behind scary, bespoke masks, identifying themselves numerically — 0 through 8 — and wearing matching coveralls, they looked and sounded like crazed butchers in hell's abattoir.
The band will bring its raucous stage assault and rage to Simmons Bank Arena on Friday during a stop on its Knotfest Roadshow tour. Opening the show will be In This Moment and Wage War.
In February, singer Corey Taylor told fans that Slipknot was "dusting off" a few songs from its catalog that hadn't been played live "in a very long time."
The prospect of digging into deep cuts onstage is exciting, says drummer Jay Weinberg earlier this month from his home in Nashville, Tenn., where he was getting ready to hit the road.
"That is some of my favorite stuff to tap into. Not only are they songs that I think people might not expect us to play, but songs for ourselves that we don't play that often. Stuff like that is really interesting and creates a great environment and cool experience."
Slipknot's roots date to the mid-'90s. Percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan, bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison had a vision for a band and a way to break out of Des Moines. The trio picked up other members, including Taylor, who at the time was frontman for Des Moines band Stone Sour.
Taylor's ability to not only scream with a maniacal, unhinged abandon but also spit lyrics at a mile-a-minute pace and sing like a choirboy — sometimes all in the same song — made him a crucial asset to the band.
The group developed its aural onslaught by combining speed, hardcore and thrash metal with industrial, funk and hip-hop elements and lyrics fueled by anger, confusion and disillusionment. In addition to Jordison's land-speed-record-fast drumming, there were two other percussionists pounding on drums, barrels and kegs and two DJs adding scratches and samples. The result was like the sound of a half-dozen helicopters hovering over a riot.
The band's self-titled debut was released in 1999 on Roadrunner Records with minimal mainstream exposure. Through constant touring and word-of-mouth buzz, the record was certified platinum a year later.
"Iowa," the 2001 followup that was recorded amid tensions within the young band, cemented Slipknot's stature as an uncompromising, heavy music juggernaut. In a stereogum.com essay on the album's 20th anniversary, Nm Mashurov said it was " ... so massive, monstrous, and unrelentingly evil that it remains hailed as one of the greatest metal albums of all time."
The band followed "Iowa" with 2004's "Vol. 3. (The Subliminal Verses)," "All Hope Is Gone" in 2008, ".5: The Gray Chapter" in 2014 and 2019's "We Are Not Your Kind." They have 10 Grammy nominations, winning in 2006 for Best Metal Performance for the single "Before I Forget."
Over the years, Slipknot has had its share of heartbreak. Founding member Gray died of an overdose on May 24, 2010. Jordison, another founder, left the group in 2013 and later revealed that he suffered from transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that hampered his ability to play drums. He died on July 26.
Weinberg, the son of drummer Max Weinberg of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, was brought into the Slipknot fold in 2014, but was a fan long before then. There's a charming photo of Max and a young Jay, who is wearing a Corey Taylor replica mask, meeting Slipknot guitarist Jim Root backstage at a show in the early 2000s.
"'Vol. 3. (The Subliminal Verses)' was a huge, door-opening moment for myself as a listener of heavy music," Weinberg says. "There is so much experimentation happening on that album. From song to song there are these drastic changes. It really opened my eyes to listening to the deeper nuances of heavy music and understand that it's more than distorted guitars and intense vocals and loud drums."
The band — whose current lineup includes Taylor, Crahan, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Sid Wilson, Jim Root, Alessandro Venturella, Weinberg and Michael Pfaff — dropped the furious single "Chapeltown Rag," a rant about how truth is distorted on social media, in November. More new jams are in the works, Weinberg says.
"Throughout 2021, that was our main focus because we couldn't really play shows until the fall. Getting creative was high on our priority list, and there are new tunes kicking about. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can share them."
Opening the show will be In This Moment and Wage War. The latter group was called in to replace Jinjer, the Ukrainian band who pulled out of the tour after the Russian invasion of its homeland.
Taylor led a tribute to Jinjer at the tour's first show on March 16 in Fargo, N.D., according to the website consequence.net.
"Sadly, they could not make it because of the turmoil in their country right now," he said. "But on the count of three I want you to scream so ... loud they can hear it across the ocean."
Knotfest Roadshow — Slipknot
- Opening acts: In This Moment, Wage War
- When: 6:30 p.m. Friday
- Where: Simmons Bank Arena, 1 Simmons Bank Arena Drive, North Little Rock
- Admission: $39.50, $59.50, $79.50, $99.50 and $139.50
- Information: (501) 975-9000; simmonsbankarena.com