Slipknot are dragging out the deep cuts! Nu metal’s nine-man wrecking crew started their 25th anniversary tour this week and are playing their ground-breaking debut in full. As a result, Only One and No Life got their first live airings since 2012 and 2000 respectively.
Though The Nine are going to be in Slipknot mode for the rest of the year now, the resurrected rarities have got us thinking about other neglected classics in their catalogue. Here are six more long-unplayed fan-favourites that need to be brought out of retirement at some point.
Iowa (Iowa, 2001)
We understand why this one hasn’t graced a setlist since 2016. Not only is Iowa a 15-minute odyssey; its darkly ambient, necromantic fantasies make it an outlier in Slipknot’s otherwise apoplectic canon. However, this bleak finale of the band’s UK number-one rager is a beloved experiment, and the idea of it never terrifying audiences again is a pretty shit one.
My Plague (Iowa, 2001)
My Plague has all the hallmarks of a live standout. It’s one of Iowa’s most popular songs, thanks partly to its inclusion on the 2002 Resident Evil film soundtrack. Its verses are destructively heavy, whereas the chorus is a cathartic throat-shredder with those cries of “I know why you blame me!” So, how come it’s not been played in eight years? Heresy.
The Nameless (Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, 2004)
Slipknot shed their nu metal skin in 2004, with The Nameless factoring in both white-knuckle thrash and tender, acoustic segues. A live version of the song was released to promote the 9.0 album in November 2005, but it hasn’t been played since then. The number of streams it has compared to most other Vol. 3 cuts suggests that that needs to change.
Pulse Of The Maggots (Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, 2004)
Pulse Of The Maggots was written as an anthem for the Slipknot fan-base. The unity of such lines as “We are the new diabolic! We are the bitter bucolic!” – not to mention the popularity of the track and its exciting, constant groove – should make it an ideal concert regular. But, Pulse… hasn’t exploded from venue speakers since the summer of 2016.
All Hope Is Gone (All Hope Is Gone, 2008)
Famously, Slipknot have only played the title track of their fourth album live one time. This is in spite of it being All Hope Is Gone’s lead single, as well as its standing as a technical thrash metal banger with an addictive hook. Tell us you can’t picture entire arenas screaming, “We’ll find a way… when all hope is gone!” You can’t.
The Negative One (.5: The Gray Chapter, 2014)
The Negative One was Slipknot’s comeback track. Their first new music after the death of Paul Gray and the dismissal of Joey Jordison, it was a statement of continued furiosity from one of the nastiest bands on Planet Earth. This importance, plus the song’s chart success, hasn’t been enough to put the song on a setlist since June 2019, however.
