The 2001 Slipknot song that Corey Taylor recorded naked: “Did that song in two takes”
Not every band is necessarily ready to be thrown into the spotlight.
Although Slipknot might have been asking for controversy with their grotesque masks and animalistic live shows, becoming one of the biggest acts in metal wasn’t on their agenda going into making their first album. When they finally got to make a follow-up record, ‘The Nine’ felt like whipped puppies.
According to most of the band, no one was ready to get down to business for the new record so soon, with writing sessions starting only a few days after coming off the road. After trying to have a second to breathe, Iowa reflects all of the changes that Slipknot endured after blowing up, becoming much heavier and airing out their pain on tracks like ‘The Heretic Anthem’ and ‘People = Shit’. Of all the demented songs on the record, though, Corey Taylor always has troubled memories going into the title track.
The closing track, ‘Iowa’, stands as one of the most harrowing pieces the band ever recorded, stretching into an extended descent of slow-building tension and disturbing imagery. While the instrumental foundation had already been laid down, Taylor struggled to find the right mental space to deliver the vocal, unsure how to match the track’s suffocating atmosphere.
That changed under the guidance of producer Ross Robinson, who pushed him to access something far more extreme and personal. Taking that instruction literally, Taylor isolated himself in the studio and delivered the vocal in an intensely physical and emotional state, resulting in a performance that captured genuine distress. The final recording reflects that ordeal, turning the track into a raw document of the band’s psychological state during the sessions.
Closing out the record, the tune is 15 minutes of audio hell, as the backing track broods in intensity as Taylor sings about coming across a corpse. Even though the band had laid down the backing track, Taylor wasn’t ready to sing the song until he got some advice from producer Ross Robinson.
Robinson had been known for working with other metal acts like Korn and knew how to push the group, often throwing potted plants at them during takes to get the results he wanted out of them.
When discussing how Taylor should approach the tune, he mentioned Robinson wanting to push him out of his comfort zone, telling Google Autobiography, “He told me, ‘I want you to go someplace that you’re scared to go to. Somewhere you’ve never allowed yourself to go.’ So I stripped naked and went into the big room at Sound City Studios and did that song in two takes”.
The version that Maggots heard on the final version did come without some pain, though, as Taylor cut himself up with broken glass and vomited during the final recording. Some of his pained screams can be heard towards the end of the song as he mutilates himself for the song’s sake.
That wasn’t even the only time the recording went haywire. In between sessions, DJ Sid Wilson also struggled with losing his grandfather, even going into the studio after hearing that he had passed away. Instead of continuing with recording, Wilson was told to go into the vocal booth and just air out all of his emotions, culminating in him screaming at the top of his lungs. The raw emotion in his voice became the album opener ‘(515)’.
Although metal fans rejoiced at how heavy the new version of Slipknot was, drummer Clown was never happy with how it turned out. Since most of the group was strung out on drugs during the recording, most would prefer not to revisit these sessions because of the drastic toll it took on their health. While it might have been the perfect reaction to being burnt out from their first record, Iowa is the sound of nine musicians at their wit’s end, desperately trying to make music together.
