Slipknot / YMMV - TV Tropes

open/close all folders

YMMV tropes about the band itself

Award Snub: The 2003 Grammy Awards nominated both Slipknot and Stone Sour in the Best Metal Performance category for "My Plague" and "Get Inside" respectively, giving Taylor and Root a 2/5 chance of taking home an award. Korn won that night for "Here to Stay". Slipknot would, however, win three years later for "Before I Forget", while Stone Sour has remained one of the most nominated bands without a win in the category's history.
Broken Base:
- Over the shift away from their Nu Metal beginnings. On that topic, is .5: The Gray Chapter nu metal or not?
- The demo Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. The band themselves basically ignores its existence, having re-recorded or reworked most of the songs featured in it for the studio albums. But it, along with early Slipknot in general, has a small but dedicated fanbase, some of whom actually consider it better than what came after.
Contested Sequel: .5: The Gray Chapter has grown to be liked less and less by the fanbase with each year. While people were happy just to have a new Slipknot release when it came out, there were issues taken with the album on release (namely the bloated runtime, abundance of similar-sounding tracks, and Jay Weinberg's drum performance), and in the months leading up to We Are Not Your Kind, the fanbase came to see The Gray Chapter as a boring, one-dimensional, haphazardly written album that tried far too hard to be Iowa and wound up sounding like a cover band. While the band has not said anything on the matter, the fact that the album is completely absent from the current setlists save for "The Devil in I" and "Custer" is fairly telling.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Referring to Slipknot as "death metal" is a good way to get a fan pissed at you.
Fandom Rivalry:
- Mostly with Mushroomhead fans due to both bands wearing masks and playing nu metal. There's one particularly notorious incident while Slipknot were supporting Coal Chamber on their 1999 Livin' La Vida Loco tour, where they went out to perform in Cleveland, and a bunch of Mushroomhead fans were waiting for them. Said fans proceeded to throw things at the band, including a padlock right at Paul Gray's face. The band - plus members of Amen and Machine Head, who were also on the bill - got into it with those fans physically as soon as the set was over, until the cops broke it up. Adding fuel to the fire was Mushroomhead vocalist Jeff Hatrix, who admitted he helped orchestrate the incident. All that being said, ever since the death of Paul Gray, this feud has simmered down.
- Juggalos and Maggots are also rivals somewhat, even though Slipknot's members are Juggalos. Insane Clown Posse and Slipknot are actually mutual admirers, although ICP is not fond of Slipknot's decision to call their fans "maggots".
- After Corey Taylor insulted Imagine Dragons, Firebreathers became opposed to Slipknot, too.
Fan Nickname: With the identity of Michael Pfaff having been a mystery until 2022, fans have called him either "Chrisn't" or variations on "Tortilla Man" due to the appearance of his mask.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- Clown admitted that one of the reasons he dislikes the name of All Hope Is Gone was because it was unintentional foreshadowing of bassist Paul Gray's drug-induced death two years after it was released.
- The music video for "Before I Forget," which features unmasked (but obscured) members playing near their masks hung up. Paul Gray and Joey Jordison's masks are hung up together, unintentionally foreshadowing them being the first two band members to pass away, in 2010 and 2021 respectively.
Heartwarming Moments:
- Jordison's Facebook post on the anniversary of Paul Gray's death.
  "Hey Paul, it was so great hanging out with you yesterday and today. Talking and reminiscing about old times and seeing you respond with some of the strongest gusts of wind I've ever felt."
- After the tattoo story below, Taylor talks about how incredibly cathartic the experience was and how his wife is such a huge source of inspiration and strength for him.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: The grief the band received from fans after "firing" Joey. Once the news of Joey's illness came out, you realize that the band allowed themselves to be Mis-blamed rather than betray Joey's secret.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Corey Taylor got into a massive argument with Rick Rubin over the chorus to "Before I Forget", which Rubin maintained wasn't a strong enough hook but Taylor refused to change in any way. Guess what became one of their biggest and most recognizable songs?
Memetic Mutation: Corey's reputation for weighing in on a lot of issues gave birth to "But what does Corey Taylor think?", which gained enough ground to replace the Slipknot and Stone Sour news tags on Metal Sucks.
- It's an Ascended Meme now; not only has Corey gone on the record about it (was initially offended by it, now finds it hilarious, plans on getting a shirt made of it), but his current wife, as of March 2021, has "the one who has to hear what Corey Taylor thinks the most" in her Twitter bio.
Moment of Awesome: The aforementioned Livin' La Vida Loco tour in 1999 turned out to be definitive of how big Slipknot got very quickly, as fans would often show up just to see them and leave afterward, before Amen (who Roadrunner Records thought was going to be the next big thing - they weren't), much less headliners Coal Chamber, could hit the stage. Coal Chamber, for whom Slipknot had to be moved up to direct support, were tempted to have Slipknot taken off the tour altogether because they were (understandably) sick of being shown up every night, until their manager at the time, Sharon Osbourne, talked them out of it because Slipknot were selling tickets. In short, Slipknot became headliners immediately afterward because no one could follow them. And the rest is history.
It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Being one of the most popular metal bands ever, this is a given.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Jay and Alex were this at first considering they were replacing Joey and Paul, but both quickly won fans over with skill and clear indication of enjoying being in the band. They also had arguably the coolest masks for the We Are Not Your Kind cycle, showing that they've won the rest of the band over too.
- In the early 2000s, the band was regarded by many metalheads as a band for angsty middle-class white kids who didn't have the guts to listen to real metal. Starting with Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), their reputation among the metal community has improved greatly.
Squick:
- The hidden track between "Scissors" and "Eeyore" on Slipknot, in which the band records themselves watching a scat porn video, including at least one member throwing up. This may also Cross the Line Twice for some, especially due to some of the comments the members make.
- The band released a box set that included a DVD in honor of the 10th anniversary of the release of their first album on September 9, 2009, or 9/9/09 (a reference to the collective name "the nine"). The very first scene on the DVD, following a foreword by Crahan, is of Wilson vomiting for about a minute and a half.
Tear Jerker:
- The live press conference held by the remaining eight members of the band the day after Gray's death. Seeing Jordison, Taylor, Crahan, and Wilson visibly broken and listening to them holding back tears as they spoke of how much they loved their fallen brother is insanely hard. Worse yet was when Thomson, upon being passed the mic, stared at the table in utter silence for a few moments before passing it on down.
- The episode of NY Ink where Taylor gets a tattoo in memory of Gray. Towards the end, Taylor finally breaks under the strain and starts bawling his eyes out to his wife Stephanie about how much he misses his friend, and wishes he was still here, all while Stephanie tells Taylor that Paul's always been with him, and now he always will be.
  Corey: I miss him so much... I miss him so much. I just wish he was here.
  Stephanie: He is here. He's Always with You. He's always here.
- Joey's removal from the band. Many felt it was a Kick the Dog moment on the band's behalf, but it got more depressing once it was revealed that the real reason why he left was due to his suffering from acute transverse myelitis^note, and the band had essentially taken the fall in the public eye to protect his secret.
WTH, Costuming Department?: While most of the band's masks for We Are Not Your Kind were praised, Corey's translucent mask was mocked to high heaven by fans for its rather large cheeks, making Corey look goofy, fat, or both.
Win Back the Crowd: Jay Weinberg was initially widely disliked by the fanbase; while plenty of it had to do with "not Joey", quite a bit of it was also aimed at his performances on The Gray Chapter (which were generally regarded as a particularly weak link in an already weak album) and his extremely inconsistent and often sloppy live performances. As the years went on, Jay made serious and noticeable improvements to his playing, especially his ability to sustain kick rolls and stay clean on higher tempos, while his cultivation of a playing style that was recognizably his own instead of trying to emulate Joey's most obvious stylistic hallmarks made his performance on We Are Not Your Kind one that was infinitely better received.

YMMV tropes about the music

Awesome Music: "Dead Memories" and "Vermillion" (Parts 1 and 2) are amazing ballads that showed that the band was capable of more than just mosh anthems or aggressive nu-metal.
- Any of their signature songs, really. See below.
  - But especially "Duality" for the iconic chorus and Epic Riff.
Epic Riff: "Psychosocial" is just 6 notes. But 6 damn good notes.
Fridge Brilliance: In the "Dead Memories" video, Paul stops mirroring Corey when Corey raises his hand. Paul was left-handed.
Funny Moments: "Dogfish Rising". Clearly the result of boredom while recording Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. Half the band switches instruments, and clearly Josh Brainard playing bass isn't as good at it as Paul was.
Growing the Beard: Depending on how much you hate nu metal, the group's move to a more traditional metal sound with more guitar solos and less intrusive use of samples and turntablism could qualify.
Lighter and Softer: All Hope Is Gone is this, according to Slipknot standards, at least. It's undoubtedly their most mainstream-sounding album to date.
Memetic Mutation:
- Starting with "Psychosocial Baby," it's become fun practice to remix the vocals from Slipknot songs with music from bubblegum pop tracks.
- "I push my fingers into my eyes." ^explanation
Misattributed Song:
- KMFDM's song "Sucks" has been spotted labeled as a Slipknot song. The song even states KMFDM's name!
- "Look at Me" was also a commonly misnamed track on P2P networks, it was actually "Lookaway" by Sepultura.
Most Wonderful Sound: "8. 7. 6. 6. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Null." from the start of "The Heretic Anthem".
Nightmare Fuel: Now has its own page.
Signature Song:
- Overall, there's a four-way split between "Wait and Bleed", "Duality", "Before I Forget", and "Psychosocial" that really depends on who you ask.
- Album-wise it goes like this:
  - Slipknot: "Wait and Bleed", of course, though "(sic)" and "Spit It Out" are also well-known.
  - Iowa: "People = Shit", "Left Behind"
  - Vol. 3: "Duality", "Before I Forget", "Vermilion Pt. 2"
  - All Hope is Gone: "Psychosocial", "Snuff"
  - The Gray Chapter: "The Devil in I" and "Killpop". "Custer" has also gotten popular recently.
  - We Are Not Your Kind: "Unsainted", "Nero Forte"
  - The End, So Far: "The Dying Song (Time to Sing)", "The Chapeltown Rag"
Tear Jerker:
- "Snuff", "Vermilion Pt. 2", "Goodbye".
- The End, So Far features "Heirloom", which talks about domestic abuse and The Chain of Harm.

YMMV / Slipknot

Edit Locked