“Greg had this ‘60s P-Bass with a nut that had been cut so many times that the strings were rattling around, and a pickup that couldn't really handle how hard I played”: Alex ‘V-Man’ Venturella on tone, technique – and how he nailed his Slipknot audition

Alessandro Venturella of Slipknot performs on stage during the Knotfest at Artukainen Event Park on August 13, 2022 in Turku, Finland.

They swore. They drank. They wrote songs about decaying flesh. Straight out of the blocks, Slipknot had all the measures in place to guarantee the outrage of Iowa's retirement homes.

Fusing the bile of punk with the brutality of thrash, they recruited the cream of the town’s underground metal scene, slackening their guitar tunings down to drop B, and dabbling with a series of leather masks, ranging from a bloodstained clown to a chap with nails sticking out of his head.