Slipknot is not the first band to wear a costume
or elaborate face paint, but after over 20 years, their masks are an essential part of
the band. The disturbing masks represent their intense
music and explicit lyrics, and offer a view of the darker side of each musician's personality. Before the formation of Slipknot, two of the
founding members of the band, Anders Colsefni and Shawn Crahan, became friends in the early
'90s. The duo met at gigs from the same metal scene
in Des Moines, Iowa However, the two also got along well because
they played a role-playing game called "Werewolf: The Apocalypse," which was more violent and
less popular than the well-known RPG "Dungeons & Dragons." Unlike "D&D," the "Werewolf" franchise focuses
on a horror theme, with main characters being werewolves and vampires. For both musicians, a major appeal of the
game was that it was possible to become something else. In the book "Slipknot: All Hope is Gone,"
by Joel McIver, Colsefni says, "The attraction was being able to play a different
person, to be able to do something different. This was the founding of Slipknot — that
was it, right there." After the band was created, this mentality
was carried over into their first gig on December 4th, 1995. Colsefni says that from the very beginning,
Slipknot performances have generated what he says is, "A primal feeling — I'm transformed into
an animal, and that's the reason we wear what we do on stage." In January 1996, Shawn Crahan was rummaging
through boxes of his stuff in the basement when he came across an old clown mask of his
that he had not seen in 10 years. The percussionist then decided to wear the
old clown mask during a practice session with the band and that changed everything. The drummer enjoyed wearing the clown mask
so much that he wanted to keep wearing it regardless of what the others wanted, even
during shows. Crahan recalls that there was some pushback
from his bandmates. He said, "A few of them were like, 'No f--king way. You can't be the only guy wearing some stupid
mask. So I said, 'I really don't care what you think,
this is who I am and this is what I'm going to do.' So here we are all these years later..." After Crahan and Anders Colsefni wore masks
for a few performances, the rest of the band eventually gave in and agreed to do the same. Corey Taylor explained, "We started from day one knowing we had to
evolve, knowing that we had to stay relevant, and one of the things we knew we had to do
was find ways to look like a unit and do it in a way that didn't feel forced." Masks became such a part of Slipknot's identity
that the fans never saw the musicians' faces. Photographer Paul Harries took numerous pictures
of the band, and was frequently asked by fans if he had ever seen their faces, and even
asked if the members actually had real faces. Eventually, as the band grew in popularity,
some of the members became much more lax with showing their faces, especially Corey Taylor
and Shawn Crahan. As his side project, Stone Sour, became more
well-known, not only was Taylor's face seen more often but also Slipknot guitarist Jim
Root's. The quieter members of Slipknot have remained
more elusive than the rest, like Craig Jones and Chris Fehn, but pictures of their faces
can also easily be found on the internet these days. Corey Taylor is one of the Slipknot band members
who changes masks more than the others, and he does so because he believes it reflects
how people change over time. According to Kerrang Radio, the singer says, "People like me, Clown, Sid [Wilson] and a
couple of others, we change ours drastically. [...] Nobody stays the same over time — that's
my belief." In the early days, Taylor wore a bondage mask
but had issues because of his dreadlocks, which he threaded through holes cut in the
mask. After a year of this, the singer did not like
what was happening to his hair, so he severed his dreads and attached them to the mask,
creating his signature look for both the band's self-titled and "Iowa" albums. By the "All Hope is Gone" album cycle in 2008,
Taylor released an entirely new, almost featureless face mask, arguably more eery for its blank
expression. The singer's last two masks have also been
quite unique, with almost no connection to his previous masks. “I loved the fact that every mask was different,
because it represented a different person. It wasn’t all linear, and just kind of thrown
together.” Like Corey Taylor, the masks of Shawn Crahan
have changed a lot over the years. However, they've all been variations of the
clown theme that he's had from the beginning. The clown persona has become such a part of
Crahan's identity that his nickname is "Clown," and even though he doesn't wear the original
mask during shows anymore, the drummer still has and cherishes the mask that started it
all. Crahan was initially drawn to the mask at
a Halloween store many years earlier while walking in the mall with his girlfriend. He was supposed to buy lunch, but instead,
he spent all of his money on the clown mask. In an interview with the BBC, Crahan said, "I had gotten a version of this mask when
I was 14. [...] I just never knew why it was in my world
but it was always around me.” He continued, “Then one day, it just so happened, it was
that moment of clarity to decide what I want to project.” He went on to say of his mask, “This thing has no f--king limits." When it came time for the intimidating guitarist
to choose, Mick Thomson initially went for the look of the iconic hulking mass murderer
Jason Voorhees from the classic horror franchise "Friday the 13th." This meant that he easily found a hockey mask
at the store, but it involved very little imagination. So, after wearing the hockey mask for the
cover of their first album in 1999, he exchanged it for a black leather mask that shortly after
had his own metallic design. Thomson's masks have all been based on his
original hockey mask idea, albeit with some major tweaks to incorporate his own style. The guitarist's masks have evolved, but for
over a decade, the changes have been minor, so his signature look has remained relatively
the same during the last few album cycles. The metallic grill over the mouth is something
he's stuck with and made his own, yet it's also the way his newer masks are linked to
the original. As one of the band members who has modified
his mask the least, Thomson summed up his feelings on the matter when he said, "If you know who you are, you don't need change. I think I pretty much nailed it with this
one for being able to get across how I am." Originally, like all new Slipknot members,
Jim Root did not choose a mask and instead was given the black bondage mask of the member
he replaced, Josh Brainard. But the inherited mask was simply too difficult
to play in, and Root wanted a mask of his own, so he discarded the hand-me-down almost
immediately. To represent his mischievous character, the
guitarist now usually wears a type of jester mask. The group also had a role in the decision
because Root said in a radio interview, "The guys chose this mask to tame me. I was a timid guy before I joined this band. Now I'm a freak." Like Mick Thomson, Root's masks have remained
very similar to the mask he wore during the release of the album "Iowa" back in 2001. Both musicians seem to firmly believe that
there is no reason to fix something that isn't broken. Craig Jones' first mask was basically just
underwear over his face until he got more creative for the release of Slipknot's first
album. Now, Jones is known for his mask with nails
sticking out of it, similar to Hellraiser's Pinhead. The sampler initially stuck the nails to an
old helmet and added a flashlight as well. However, he switched it up to a spiked leather
mask for the release of "Iowa." Since Jones is notorious for his silence during
interviews, he also put a zipper on his mouth slit that he could slowly zip shut with glee
when asked to speak. From then on, Jones' bondage Pinhead look
has become his own, and the only real change is that the nails have gotten longer. The masks of Sid Wilson have changed more
than the masks of any of his other bandmates. Over the years, the DJ went from a standard
gas mask for Slipknot's first album to a skull-shaped gas mask for "Iowa," then a stylized skull
for "Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses," and a robotic mask for "All Hope Is Gone" in 2008. Wilson made sure it was somewhat functional
and included adjustable eyebrows to display his desired expressions, and fully leaned
into the Transformers look in 2012. More recently for the last two album cycles
in 2014 and 2019, Wilson has worn a hood with creepy teeth, first with metallic eyes and
with the most recent mask looking more like he's wearing the skin of a human than any
previous mask. Chris Fehn is notorious for wearing a long,
Pinocchio-like nose on his masks that he says reflects his comedic personality. It is common to see the drummer rub the nose
in a vulgar manner during performances. When discussing his first mask, Fehn noted
of the mask’s zipper, "I chose it for the bondage factor." For the "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses" era,
the drummer's mask had the fascinating characteristic of often changing colors. The mask first looked like it had started
to rust and then eventually became all red. Fehn's masks changed very little, with only
minor alterations. Sometimes he wore a hood over the back of
his head, while he did not for other album cycles. Fehn used the same mask for Slipknot's self-titled
debut album and "Iowa," and the drummer noted how bad of an idea that was due to how bad
the mask ended up smelling. Early on, Bassist Paul Gray wore a Halloween
pig mask that the band said was a reflection on his character flaw of self-indulgence. However, a rival band, Mushroomhead, accused
him of stealing their look, so Gray modified his subsequent masks to be more human in style. While the mask for "Iowa" still retained a
vaguely pig-like look, the black mask he wore in the "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses" cycle
lost that trait and instead had a Hannibal Lecter-looking design with nails that made
a grill over the mouth. Before Gray tragically passed away in 2010,
the bassist featured two different masks for a couple of years during the "All Hope Is
Gone" era. Both retained the Hannibal Lecter style of
the previous mask, but one had a paint smear and the other had small cracks to differentiate
them. As a child, Joey Jordison was creeped out
by the blank look of Japanese Kabuki masks after he witnessed his mother wearing one
when she came home from a Halloween party. Jordison kept this style for his masks throughout
his years with the band, only with slight alterations. The drummer's last mask for the "All Hope
Is Gone" cycle was the most creative, appearing like a demonic Christ with a crown of thorns
and stitches across the face. Even though the blank expression of the Kabuki
masks frightened him the most as a kid, it became one of his favorite features as an
adult. As Jordison noted, "You feel however you want to feel; scary,
evil or perverted. All those things held in one mask." But like other members, the drummer had issues
playing in the masks, saying, "It's very difficult to play in the masks
sometimes. You feel like you're locked in hell." Sadly, Jordison passed away in July, 2021. After Paul Gray's tragic death and Joey Jordison's
emotional exit from Slipknot, bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg replaced
them in the band. But out of respect for the former members,
the masks they were given were less creative than those of their bandmates. Both masks appeared as corpse-like faces with
a pentagram on the forehead. After Chris Fehn's departure from Slipknot
in 2019, he was quickly replaced by a drummer who is believed to be Michael Pfaff from Shawn
Crahan's side project, Dirty Little Rabbits, says Alternative Press. Yet the band attempted to keep his identity
secret, so he was simply known as "Tortilla Man" due to the look of the basic mask he
was provided with. Similar to the masks of Venturella and Weinberg,
it has a zipper mouth and looks like decaying skin, and resembles a tortilla. In the most recent round of Slipknot masks,
Alessandro Venturella and Jay Weinberg have been allowed to wear masks that are entirely
their own. This is especially beneficial for the new
bassist, whose mask pays tribute to Paul Gray's with a pig look but also incorporates his
own samurai design. On the other hand, Corey Taylor's mask ended
up being a huge letdown after all the hype leading up to its release. Renowned makeup artist and SFX master Tom
Savini helped design and create the mask, so there was a lot of built-up excitement
and expectations for greatness. Instead, the high hopes were quickly dashed
once the mask was revealed, with many posters on Reddit and other platforms ridiculing it
for its comically large cheeks and chipmunk look. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more GRUNGE videos about your favorite
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