As Slipknot have proved time and time again over the past quarter century, they’re a hell of a live band. As hard as their albums hit, it’s another thing to see the masked-up Iowa nonet sweating through their jumpsuits onstage and jettisoning all their excess energy into a hungry crowd.
While the group are currently out on tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut, Slipknot have managed to make Maggots go wild with every album and every show. With that in mind, we asked Revolver readers to pick the best Slipknot song to see live in action — here are the top-five vote-getters.
“Purity”
Sure, there are faster and more frenzied pieces in the Slipknot songbook that can whip a pit full of Maggots into an instant psychopathic daze, but there’s likewise a deceptively propulsive feel pounding through the self-titled album’s slow-crawled “Purity.”
The riffs are bleak and spacious, but the fast-twitching drum rolls are claustrophobically frenetic, befitting the trapped-in-a-box paranoia of Corey Taylor’s lyrical theme. By the time the song drops into its groove-hammered climax, you’re going to see a sea of people bounding along to the beat.
“Disasterpiece”
As Slipknot’s mega-heavy Iowa classic taught us so many years ago, people make noises. When it comes to the ‘Knot dropping into their “Disasterpiece” onstage, the group excel through a mean-as-fuck masterclass of blast-intensive chaos, guts-chunky chromatic hook-play from guitarists Jim Root and Mick Thomson, and feel-bad singalongs from Taylor.
Meanwhile, the sound coming out of the Maggots when this fave comes up in concert rests somewhere between screaming and crying. What’s sure is that when Slipknot throw this on a setlist, absolutely nobody’s gonna stop ‘em. And no one is safe.
“Surfacing”
“Surfacing” is an early Slipknot concert favorite for myriad reasons, one of which being that there’s something elementally cathartic about getting together with a bunch of friends, throwing your middle fingers up, and screaming, “Fuck this world!”
Add to that, there’s a pulse-quickening, Pavlovian response connected to the nervous whammy-bar squall that sets off “Surfacing” — it’s an undeniable aural trigger that lets you know straight away that Slipknot are about to bring the pain.
Whether it’s your new national anthem or old national anthem, “Surfacing” is indeed the push that makes Maggots move.
“The Heretic Anthem”
There’s no “if” about it: Slipknot are “666,” as they made clear with “The Heretic Anthem.” This worship-worthy Iowa standout is the kind of song that lambastes the “popstar threat” while simultaneously converting 10 million Maggots to the ‘Knot’s heavy cause.
The song’s got it all. Breakdowns? Check. Obscenities? Check. And it’s hard not to be taken in by the deeply evil-sounding, Slayer-ish guitar trilling coming out of Thomson.
What’s it like to be a heretic? Well, in the case of Slipknot, it seems like it’s pretty sic.
“Spit It Out”
If there’s one song Maggots’ll never get sick of, it’s “Spit It Out.” Between Corey Taylor’s fast-rapped venom, the guitarists’ groove-panicked hooks and all that keg-clattering percussive punishment, the dynamics of this early banger are off the charts.
It’s a heavy-edged concert standout, and one you’re damn near guaranteed to hear at most every Slipknot show — outside of “Surfacing,” it’s the song they’ve played the most. And after the ‘Knot crank into this one, the only way to break through their noise is to scream along.
If the Nine are all out of enemies by song’s end, that’s because they’re surrounded by a crowd full of fans freaking out along with them.