It’s a rite of passage for a rock band to go through periods of tension between members. For Slipknot, that period came during the making of one of their most prolific albums as the band now says it escalated well beyond normal tensions.
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Slipknot were featured on the cover of Metal Hammer as the magazine gave an extensive profile to the band’s 2001 album Iowa. The album celebrates its 20th anniversary this August, but the making of the record marked a nasty time for the band.
“When we did Iowa, we hated each other,” Slipknot percussionist Clown told the magazine. “We hated the world. The world hated us.”
Slipknot’s self-titled debut album in 1999 became an instant hit. The band was catapulted from relatively unknown to full-blown superstars. This helped contribute to the tension of the time.
“We were just all at odds with each other,” frontman Corey Taylor said. “I don’t know if it was jealousy or if it was just insecurity; ‘Am I pulling my weight? Is this person getting more attention than me?’ It was just dark, and it really spit in the face of everything the band tried to accomplish on the first album.”
Despite the tensions that arose, the music on Iowa serves as a response to the success from their 1999 debut. “It was a backlash for our dream,” Clown said. “We spent 18 months on that first cycle doing all these interviews, agents, managers... it was all performance. “
“By the time we got to the second album, people needed to be curbed and understand their place and that their opinion didn’t matter as much as they thought it did,” he added.
“Just because we were the first platinum band on Roadrunner doesn’t give everyone the ability to start advising. When we were home to take a breath, it was clear that [the second album] was gonna be disturbing and force fed to the world.”
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