{"id":625987,"date":"2026-04-23T15:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625987\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:38:16","slug":"slipknot-i-would-drink-from-the-moment-i-woke-up-until-i-passed-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625987\/","title":{"rendered":"Slipknot: “I would drink from the moment I woke up, until I passed out”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may seem strange to suggest this, but for Slipknot<\/a>, Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was arguably a crossroads album.<\/p>\n

Despite, or maybe because of, the enormous success they\u2019d enjoyed with the previous two albums (1999\u2019s self-titled debut and Iowa<\/a> two years later), the band seemed on the point of disintegrating. The sheer intensity of their lifestyle was threatening to tear them apart. They needed the space and time to gather thoughts, and got this through taking a comparatively lengthy break from one another, getting involved in other projects.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root revived old band Stone Sour, drummer Joey Jordison picked up the guitar for the Murderdolls, and percussionist Shawn Crahan started up his own project, To My Surprise. All of which meant that when the nine men finally got back together to start work on the follow-up to Iowa, they should have been immediately focused and ready to fire on all cylinders. But things didn\u2019t quite turn out that way.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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Slipknot – Duality [OFFICIAL VIDEO] [HD] – YouTube
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\u201cI would drink from the moment I woke up, until the moment I passed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corey Taylor<\/p>\n

Slipknot had decided to work with producer Rick Rubin on the record, and elected to do the work at a location called The Mansion in Los Angeles, a house once owned by Harry Houdini that was supposedly haunted \u2013 but we\u2019ll get to that later. Initially, problems arose because there seemed to be a sluggish atmosphere to proceedings, not helped by reports that Taylor was drinking heavily, as the singer himself would later reveal:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would drink from the moment I woke up, until the moment I passed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordison admitted earlier this year that the process was initially fraught.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t talk to each other for three months. All we did was waste money in that fucking Houdini house.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Slipknot\n<\/p>\n

The gang’s all here, backstage at Big Day Out in 2005 (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But, slowly things began to come together, as Jordison told Metal Hammer early in 2003:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo here we are, all living together for very the first time in a couple of years and it feels like a family again. As far as the progress of the record goes, we have all the main tracks done and are in overdub mode currently. I know that all bands say that their new record is gonna be the best, but in all sincerity this is gonna show all the new bands how it\u2019s really done. We\u2019re comin\u2019 back to reclaim the crown of the world\u2019s most brutally honest and insane band. Twenty songs have been written for this record and that\u2019s something we haven\u2019t done before, there\u2019s no settling for anything sub standard\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the time away has only rekindled the spirit that we had in the beginning. Everything you\u2019ve loved about us is in place, and a shitload more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Taylor felt that it was the commitment of the nine to each other and to the ideals of Slipknot that would ultimately overcome any petty differences between them. In the end, it needed all of them to be fully interactive.<\/p>\n

Slipknot – Vermilion [OFFICIAL VIDEO] [HD] – YouTube
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\u201cAt the end of the day, who have you got? You\u2019ve got your band and you\u2019ve got your family. And we\u2019ve got each other. We watch each other\u2019s backs 100 per cent. It\u2019s now at the point where record sales don\u2019t matter, radio doesn\u2019t matter, MTV doesn\u2019t matter. The question is, \u2018Are you happy with what you\u2019re doing?\u2019 I can sleep at night now, because I\u2019m making something that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

The choice of Rubin was crucial to the whole exercise, as he brought an extra dimension to the project, as explained by Jordison:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted someone with a different opinion and a different perspective. We wanted Rick\u2019s take and taste on what we do. He really helped us open up as far as our talent was concerned, building on everything we\u2019re known for and taking it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubin himself explained his approach to the album as being more about getting the band to deal with each other rather just concentrating on the mechanics:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I tried to stress from the beginning is that Slipknot are a bigger idea than a sound. They can\u2019t be limited by what they think Slipknot\u2019s supposed to sound like. What draws people to the band is how extreme it is. But extreme doesn\u2019t have to always be extreme in the same way. Sometimes extreme can be fast; sometimes extreme can be slow. Extreme could mean extreme musically.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely insane,” Rubin continued. “I had no idea it would be as much of a challenge. If you\u2019re with a group of four people, and one of them is moody or has a problem with something, you can usually read it. Even if they don\u2019t say anything, you can just sense something\u2019s up. But when there are nine people there, it\u2019s very difficult to sense anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Slipknot\n<\/p>\n

Duality, Slipknot guitarists Mick Thomson and James Root (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Once the band got into the groove, and it may well be that facing their own personal demons helped in this matter, they sensed this was to be an album that would take them to the next level. Never shirking the desire to be brutal, all of them realised that you didn\u2019t need to be ultra-heavy to get across extremities. In fact, sometimes by varying the pace, it actually increases the eeriness and effectiveness of the overall atmosphere of the music.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that all of our previous releases went platinum (selling over a million copies),\u201d said Root. \u201cBut I think that in life you have to set goals and I don\u2019t think we try to set goals on things like big sales. If it happens, it happens. We\u2019re lucky that we did something really great. I think that the only goal that we try to set for ourselves is to evolve musically.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff on this album that\u2019s really breaking down some barriers as to what Slipknot are as a band. There\u2019s a lot of acoustic guitar on this album\u2026 who would ever have thought that would happen on a Slipknot record. There\u2019s not just sampling and DJ work, but there\u2019s actual keyboard work. If we heard a noise in our heads, we tried to emulate it.”<\/p>\n

Slipknot – Vermilion Pt. 2 [OFFICIAL VIDEO] [HD] – YouTube
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But how much of what is heard on the album is down to the rumour that The Mansion was haunted? And, is this story actually true? Inevitably, Slipknot did nothing to dispel this legend \u2013 quite the opposite. However, Jordison was at pains to suggest the vibe was more to do with the architecture of the building rather than specific apparitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good for the album, and the vibe of the place was great!,\u201d explained the drummer. \u201cIt was really reflective on the way the album came out \u2013 it was more of a commune thing, with the band living together especially after our time off and everything. But, as far as the scary thing\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we just fed off the vibe and the weirdness of the place; it really helped with the record, it was cool.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe house was built in 1918. It\u2019s very desolate, but very beautiful at the same time. Unless you were there \u2013 it\u2019s very hard to put into words. You don\u2019t want to short-change it. It\u2019s very open-ended and it\u2019s like a fucking maze! And what better place to make the new Slipknot record than an old abandoned mansion in the Hollywood Hills? A place where my door will open at 9am every morning, no matter what I put in front of it to stop it from happening?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Slipknot\n<\/p>\n

Wait and bleed, Clown at Rock In Rio, 2004 (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However Taylor was much more explicit on the subject:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s haunted.\u201dhe says. \u201cYou can put the rumours to rest, because I\u2019ve seen it and dealt with it for six months. I\u2019ve got some stories that would raise the hair on the back of your neck \u2014 and that\u2019s no bullshit, that\u2019s not just for press. It\u2019s so weird, I don\u2019t even like talking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Shawn shared two adjacent rooms, and written on the phone jack box was, \u2018In case of paranormal activity, dial\u2026\u2019, and it had a phone number, \u2018Or 911\u2019. That\u2019s the level of insanity we dealt with. But we loved that vibe. You can really feel it on the album. There were ghosts in the machine, in the equipment. Things would freeze and things would loop for no reason at all. It was very strange, dude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slipknot – Before I Forget [OFFICIAL VIDEO] [HD] – YouTube
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The album, called Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), was finally released in May 2004, to a generally strong response. You could immediately appreciate why Jordison had referred to the record as being, \u201cSlayer tapping into Radiohead\u201d. There were even tracks like Circle and Vermillion Pt. 2, where it was acoustic guitar that led the way rather than electric.<\/p>\n

The songs Blister Exists, Three Nil and Opium Of The People astonished with the manner in which concussively cruel riffs were linked with daring melodies \u2013 this was a band who refused to conform and were out to confound expectations, a band who would not stand still and just re-hash old values. This was a force of nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult because you have nine different people, nine different personalities, nine different ideas,\u201d says Root. \u201cBut we do have the same goals. Even like the overalls and shit like that, we decided that we\u2019ll come up with a common theme, or at least let everybody do their own theme. That\u2019s one of the things that we\u2019ve all learned after stepping out of Slipknot, and then coming back to it after a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazingly, this was the first Slipknot album not to get a \u2018Parental Advisory\u2019 sticker, as Taylor studiously avoided liberal use of profanities, something that had coloured the previous albums. But, by using metaphors and more extensive language, if anything the singer carved his anger, disaffection and alienation into even more stark edifices.<\/p>\n

Slipknot – The Nameless [OFFICIAL VIDEO] [HD] – YouTube
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The commercial success of the record is astonishing to chronicle, even now. It got to number two on the US and Australian charts, number five in the UK, and also charted on the Top 20 in ten other countries, while Duality, Vermillion and Before I Forget each made the Top 40 singles chart over here.<\/p>\n

All of this marked out Vol 3\u2026 as the most successful record of the band\u2019s career to date, and put them firmly into the major league. Not bad for a project that was born out of a band who were disillusioned with one another, with a drunken singer and consummated in a haunted house!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in hope, and we really wanted to believe we were the band against the world,\u201d concluded Root at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we made Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and everything opened up again like the way it did in 1998. But at a different level. We can\u2019t re-create anything we did. It\u2019s impossible. We ourselves are all insurgent. But there was a feeling, kind of like 1998 where we\u2019re talking again and there\u2019s kind of a little hunger. Things are going on. People are getting on. And all of a sudden, boom, it just all happened again.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Metal Hammer Presents\u2026 Slipknot And The Story Of Shock Rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may seem strange to suggest this, but for Slipknot, Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was arguably a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-625987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}