On Halloween 1996, Slipknot self-released an album called Mate. The music scene in Des Moines wasn't much to speak of, and the band's big-time ambition was usually met with disbelief and ridicule, which provided the initial spark for its mostly anonymous stage visuals. Slipknot were formed in late 1995 in the unlikely locale of Des Moines, Iowa after some early personnel shifts, the nine-piece lineup settled around (in order from number zero to number eight): DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Gray, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler/programmer Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn 'Clown' Crahan, guitarist Mick Thomson, and lead vocalist Corey Taylor.

Emerging in 1995, the Grammy Award-winning band issued their eponymous debut album in 1999 and went mainstream with subsequent gold and platinum efforts like Iowa (2001), All Hope Is Gone (2008), We Are Not Your Kind (2019), and The End, So Far (2022). Add to that a lyrical preoccupation with darkness and nihilism, and an affectionately insulting name for their fans ('Maggots'), and Slipknot's blueprint for nu-metal success was set. But even more helpful was their theatrical, attention-grabbing image: the band always performed in identical industrial jump suits and homemade Halloween masks, and added to their mysterious anonymity by adopting the numbers zero through eight as stage aliases. Slipknot's mix of grinding, post-Korn alternative metal, Marilyn Manson-esque neo-shock rock, and rap-metal helped make them one of the most popular bands in the nu-metal explosion of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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