When Slipknot hit the heavy metal scene like a nuclear bomb in 1999, armchair detectives across the then-fledgling internet got to work. There had of course been masked bands in metal before, from Gwar to Mushroomhead, but never had one shot to prominence so fast. Intrigue as to their identities was stratospheric, and forums were filled with false leads and fuzzy photos of what may or may not have been the true faces of The Nine.
In the near two-and-a-half decades since then, this fascination with seeing the men and women behind metal’s masks hasn’t faded. Ghost’s arrival in the early 2010s prompted a similar reaction, with mastermind Tobias Forge’s identity ultimately being outed by zealous fans scouring through legal documents when the band were sued by ex-members. Slipknot are still feeling it too: both of their newest additions – percussionist Michael “Tortilla Man” Pfaff and their keyboardist that’s almost definitely Zac Baird – were swiftly unmasked by Reddit. So why does the same obsession not apply to the most ardent fans of Sleep Token?
