After spending most of the '90s as a member of the Mid-West thrash and alt-metal scene with Atomic Opera and Stone Sour, Jim Root joined Des Moines, Iowa nu-metal-meets-groove-metal outfit Slipknot. Soon, he became known as #4, donned a mask akin to Michael Myers, and, with an array of shred-leaning guitars, teamed up with Mick Thomson to flip metal on its end and bash its skull in.
To that end, Slipknot's debut, 1999's Slipknot, was a revelation, injecting chugging metallic flakes of musical alloy into a metal scene leaning on Limp Bizkit, Korn, and the lot.
