SLIPKNOT: Nine Alive

Hit Parader Magazine

November 2005

The idea of releasing a live album didn't exactly come overnight to the members of Slipknot. Rather, it's a concept that's been lurking in the recesses of their collective, demented imagination ever since they began their 18 month-long road trek following the May 2004 appearance of their latest studio collection. Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. They didn't know exactly when it would happen. They didn't even know precisely how it would happen. But "d.j. Sid Wilson, bassist Paul Gray, guitarist James Root, drummer Joey Jordison, keyboardist Craig Jones, percussionist Chris Fehn, percussionist Shawn Crahan, guitarist Mick Thomson and vocalist Corey Taylor..." (also known by the Knot-names 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8) sensed from the very beginning that by the time their historic tour drew to a close the only proper way to celebrate its conclusion would be by releasing this shock rocks unit first-ever live set. And now with the advent of the two disc collection 9.0 Live: this Des Moines-based band's communal dream has been turned into a bone crushing, wall shaking, rock and roll reality. 

  "Our music has always taken on an even more intense, ominous sound when it's played live." Taylor said. "No matter how hard we work in the studio, the extra adrenaline rush you get when you stand on stage on front of 10,000 people just fills the music with an extra quality. That's what happened this time around, even the older stuff from our first two albums never sounded better than they did on this tour. We pushed every thing to the limit every night on stage, and you can hear that on this album."

  Drawing as it does from each of the Knot's three studio discs - 2000's Slipknot, 2002's Iowa and the aforementioned Vol.3 - with a few unexpected surprises thrown in for good measure. 9.0 stands as the crowning achievement of what has already been an historic rock and roll career. While the disc can't hope to capture the mask-wearing intensity or the hive-like insanity that greets concert-goers at each and every Slipknot performance this live collection - which features material recorded as far back as 2001 and as recently as Aug 2005 - allows fans to focus in on what is perhaps the most neglected weapon in the multi-dimensional Knot arsenal...the music itself. 

 "Because of the way we look on stage, and because of the kind of show we put on, too many people tend to overlook our music to some extent." Taylor said. "But I guess in some ways that's to be expected. It kind of goes with the territory. The fact is that a Slipknot show is supposed to be seen, heard and felt all the way down in your soul. An album can't really convey all of that. But what it does do is allow fans to hear the way some of their favorite songs - along with some of our favorite songs - have evolved after being played night-after-night for a year-and a half."  

  It has been a truly amazing 18 month period for Slipknot. During that time they've seen Vol 3 sell more than a million copies in the U.S alone (after making #2 chart entry...the best in this band's career), while moving a like-number of discs throughout the rest of the Knot-loving world. They've released a series of MTV-ready videos for the songs Duality, Vermillion and Before I Forget, each of which also emerged as a Top-10 rock radio single. And, if that wasn't enough to satisfy the metal-starved masses, they've performed in front of nearly a million fans during their stints as headliners of the 2004 Jägermeister and Ozzfest road runs, as well as while serving as the kingpins of their own 2005 Subliminal Verses Tour, where they topped the bill over the likes of Lamb of God and Shadows Fall. 

  'When you think back to everything that we've done since this album came out, it really is amazing' Taylor said. 'But one of the reasons we've been able to do it all is because we took everything step-by-step...while never letting the Big Picture get out of our heads. Even when we were doing Jägermeister more than a year ago, we knew the kind of arena tour we eventually wanted to do. Everything that we do has a lot of planning behind it. That's the only way that it can really happen. When you're talking about nine guys, all the gear that we use, and all the other stuff that goes on around us, nothing happens by chance."

 So with 9.0 seemingly serving as a fitting conclusion to the latest round of Slipknot-induced mania that has swept across the face of Planet Earth, we all must now begin to wonder what lies ahead for this legendary Nine Man Mutant Metal Army. Already we know that rumors continue to persist that before any more Knot albums are to be done, or major tours to begin, the band’s members want to take a break... from their band... from their masks... from each other. Nothing personal— just a means of keeping the Good Ship Slipknot in prime working order.

  Following the near-disaster the band encountered prior to the recording of Vol. 3, when rumors of imminent breakups and band disharmony filled the rock wires, these guys now know that in order to survive for the long term— as they clearly intend to do— the occasional break from the Knot fold is not only desirable, but a downright necessity!

  So sometime early in 2006, after the band’s fall tour has run its course and the group’s matching coveralls have been sent out for fumigation while their gear has been carefully stowed away, don't be surprised if you start to read about Jordison’s plans to reignite his side-project, the Murderdolls, and for Taylor to discuss once again taking his “other” band, Stone Sour, out of moth balls. But this time around, no matter how successful those groups may become, everyone involved knows full well that there is another Slipknot album in their immediate future. And you know what? Even now, at the very end of this recording and touring cycle, that thought brings a weary smile to the band member’s faces.

  “We know what we all want to do and need to do,” Taylor said. “There are other parts of our lives that have been neglected for two years. Those need to be taken care of. But we also know now more than ever just how much Slipknot means to us. We know that we can leave it and it'll still be here waiting for us when we’re ready to return.”

(Article by Randy Carter)