PressIowa's Biggest Export: MetalBy
KYLE MUNSON The nine members of Slipknot obscure their identities by wearing grotesque masks, but they're currently the most recognizable Iowans on the planet. The menacing Des Moines metal band today unleashes its sophomore album, "Iowa." The album could even hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, which would be a first for an Iowa-based band. Its self-titled 1999 debut has sold more than 1 million copies. Slipknot has risen out of obscurity - the obscurity of a cramped suburban basement-turned-rehearsal space in Urbandale, to be precise - to become one of the leading movers and shakers on the contemporary metal scene. The dark, grinding sound of "Iowa" has less in common with radio-friendly rap-rock hybrids Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Papa Roach than it does with died-in-the-wool metal veterans such as Black Sabbath, Slayer and Pantera. At an Ozzfest tour stop in June in Bonner Springs, Kan., Slipknot shared the main stage with the vets and newcomers alike. Rain soaked the young, teeming mass of black concert T-shirts in the audience. Those on the general-admission lawn at Sandstone Amphitheater were christened the "mud people" by performers. Clumps of sod were gleefully hurled towards the stage. The audience certainly didn't let the weather dampen its spirits when Slipknot took the stage. The band was clad in blood-red jumpsuits and aided by blasts of pyrotechnics. "Welcome to Iowa!," lead singer Corey Taylor (No. 8) screamed as an introduction, and the amphitheater erupted in an approving roar. Slipknot tore into its first tune, "People=S***." That Ozzfest roar in June served notice that "Iowa" is poised to become the darkest-sounding album ever to claim the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Drummer Joey Jordison (No. 1) - all the band members are identified by a number, 0 through 8, to further remove their real-world identities from their onstage antics - described the new album's sound as "a lot more grotesque" and "not nearly as nice" - a leap out of the frying pan and into the fire, essentially. The band resumed touring earlier this year in front of full arenas in Europe, after seven months off to write and record "Iowa." Then came Ozzfest. Now there's today's album release, followed by a fall "Pledge of Allegiance" tour with System of a Down that stops Sept. 18 in Cedar Rapids. Shawn Crahan (No. 6), percussionist and the band's creative director, doesn't take his band's status for granted. "It's a fantasy world," he said. "It's what I grew up wanting my whole life, and now it's been attained. It's a wonderful playground." Slipknot's self-titled 1999 debut sold 20,000 copies its first week in stores - impressive for a relatively unknown act. Aided by the band's debut stint on Ozzfest that summer, it eventually reached 1 million in sales. Last year the band staged its own "Tattoo the Earth" summer festival. Earlier this year, Slipknot released "The Heretic Anthem" as a free MP3 posted on Roadrunner Records" Web site. Fans downloaded the song 50,000 times. Because metal fans tend to snap up new albums the minute they're available, as Jordison pointed out, the first week of "Iowa" sales figures will help introduce the band to mainstream America. "Our goal is world domination," Crahan said. "If it's your grandma and she can plug her hearing aid into the stereo, then I want her as a potential listener." Last week in downtown Des Moines, Crahan lunched along Court Avenue with his wife and his best friend (a local attorney). Afterward he sat in his Nissan Pathfinder and pushed its factory-issue Bose stereo to the limit, cranking a few tracks off "Iowa." Office workers on their lunch breaks strolled by the throbbing SUV. Some glared, unaware that what they were hearing was the sound that would represent their state for the next several months. Crahan, 31, and clad completely in basic black, smiled and flashed them the universal metal hand sign, devil's horns. (For the uninitiated, that's the pinky and index fingers up, the thumb out and the middle two fingers down.) Consider this: The Iowa State Fair, the popular conception of what most embodies Iowa, requires that the near-1 million people who visit annually trek to its 400 acres in the middle of Des Moines. Slipknot's album, by contrast, will quickly reach far more than 1 million people in all corners of the globe. Which most embodies Iowa? Skeptics rail that the band merely repackages young male anger and angst in the costumed tradition of Kiss, Gwar and other metal bands that ripped a page from early "70s glam rock. But Slipknot's attention-getting masks and imagery, all nine members maintain, are meant to serve the music, not distract from it. Sound-effects wizard Craig Jones (No. 5) goes so far as to never speak to the media. "It's not about us, never has been," Crahan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It's what we're doing." Out of costume, the members of Slipknot can go about their daily lives unhindered. Back in Des Moines they can still stop by Hairy Marys, the bar in the Drake University neighborhood that in an earlier incarnation was the site of the first Slipknot gigs. Jordison still makes his bed in the same bedroom that his parents provided him at age 2. For Slipknot, Iowa presents a dichotomy. Its members credit their home state for instilling in them an old-fashioned, Midwestern work ethic. But they also bemoan its lack of culture. "We've slammed our home state for the void it was, no radio stations to play the hard sh--," Jordison said. "But if it wasn't for this place, we wouldn't have the band we have at all." As Taylor told MTV: "When I think of Iowa, I think of a . . . very repressed, very stagnant, very . . . psychologically imbalanced place, you know?" But again, his love for Iowa shone through. "If I moved anywhere else, I'd lose touch with the inspiration it gives me," he said. The working title for the song "Iowa" that ends the album, Jordison said, was "Get Your Suit Now "Cause We're Going to Court Later," in anticipation of criticism that might be directed at the band for associating their state's name with such dark imagery. Slipknot isn't likely to incite controversy similar to shock rocker Marilyn Manson or rapper Eminem, who have been blasted, respectively, for their anti-Christian and misogynist rhetoric. The dense roar of Slipknot's music masks an uplifting chorus. "New Abortion," for instance, proclaims "You can't take my soul away from me." Slipknot is unwavering aligned with pure metal tastes. Slayer guitarist Kerry King inspired bassist Paul Gray (No. 2) to pick up an instrument in the first place. Slayer's new album, "God Hates Us All," was originally scheduled to be released today, but its record company decided to push back the date into September so as not to compete with "Iowa." The apprentices have surpassed their masters. Jordison has been listening to a lot of "Norwegian black metal," he said, naming bands such as Immortal and Dark Throne. Guitarist Mick Thompson has become a big fan of Swedish group In Flames. Not only is Slipknot's music darker the second time around - its masks have become more grotesque. "The past two years, all the experiences we went through kind of morphed all the characters into more of an aggressive and grotesque type of personality," Jordison explained. Slipknot is resonating with its fans around the world (lovingly referred to as "maggots" by the band) for sticking to its metal guns. |