Slipknot

The group's true breakthrough arrived with their 1999 self-titled debut, produced by Ross Robinson, which introduced the classic nine-member lineup: Corey Taylor on vocals, Mick Thomson and Jim Root on guitars, Paul Gray on bass, Joey Jordison on drums, Craig Jones on keyboards and samples, Sid Wilson on turntables, Chris Fehn on percussion, and Shawn Crahan also on percussion. Slipknot's self-titled debut had landed in June 1999 as a kind of feral curiosity, with major labels unsure what to do with nine masked men from Des Moines, even as the album quietly sold itself past the platinum line in the US. The band built their following through relentless touring, including the Ozzfest package tour, and their notoriously chaotic live shows became legendary in the metal community. They gradually built an audience through near-constant touring, working their way up to the summer Ozzfest package tour, and their live shows were a much-discussed hit with metal fans. Their follow-up, 2001's "Iowa," cemented their status as one of metal's most ferocious and commercially successful acts. Iowa quickly peaked at number one on the album charts in the UK and Canada, and number three in the US, and has since been certified platinum in all three territories. Over the following two decades, Slipknot continued to evolve through additional acclaimed albums, including "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" in 2004, "All Hope Is Gone" in 2008, ".5: The Gray Chapter" in 2014, "We Are Not Your Kind" in 2019, and "The End, So Far" in 2022. Their career has been marked by both extraordinary recognition and profound tragedy. The band was honored with a Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category at the 48th annual Grammy Awards, winning for their single "Before I Forget," from the group's third album, "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). That win came after Megahit Wait And Bleed had been shortlisted in 2001, singles Left Behind and My Plague suffered similar fates in 2002 and 2003, and Duality and Vermilion were nominated simultaneously in 2005 , making the eventual victory a hard-earned milestone. The band suffered devastating losses, most notably the death of bassist Paul Gray on May 24, 2010 , and the later passing of founding drummer Joey Jordison, who had already departed the band in 2013 and tragically passed away on July 26, 2021, at the age of 46 after a years long fight with transverse myelitis . The band persevered through these losses and additional lineup shifts, bringing in bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg, and later percussionist Michael Pfaff and drummer Eloy Casagrande, while remaining one of the most theatrical and intense live acts in modern rock.

Today, Slipknot remains active and continues to tour and record, with an eight-member lineup consisting of Corey Taylor on vocals, Mick Thomson and Jim Root on guitars, Shawn "Clown" Crahan on percussion, Sid Wilson on DJ duties, Alessandro Venturella on bass, Michael Pfaff on percussion, and Eloy Casagrande on drums . Across three decades, the band has sold tens of millions of records worldwide and helped define the sound and imagery of modern heavy metal, influencing a generation of masked and theatrical acts that followed. Their combination of extreme aggression, elaborate visual identity, and genuine musical ambition transformed them from a regional curiosity into one of the most recognizable and enduring names in the genre.

For the archive at waynedennon.com, Slipknot holds a memorable place among the bands Wayne captured on stage. He photographed the band on two separate occasions between 2005 and 2009, documenting their performances across two different cities during a period when their live shows were at their most theatrical and intense. Those nights resulted in 57 photographs preserved in this collection, images that have since been viewed by archive visitors 43,242 times, a testament to the enduring fascination with Slipknot's ferocious stage presence and to Wayne's skill in freezing that chaos in a single frame.