All Hype Is Gone: How Slipknot Sold Its Soul
I’m done pushing my fingers into my eyes
Getting into bands at a young age is something that I think is precious. When you’re young, everything is new and exciting, and when you come across a band that marks a before and after in your life, it can be very hard and even painful to let go in the future. This is something that inevitably happens. People change, tastes and preferences evolve, and what seemed like a scrappy band of young and hungry misfits can turn into a brand. That being said, it is definitely better for a band to simply fade in the background or bow out, than to become, well, everything they once claimed to be against.
Slipknot really needs no introduction—they are the biggest and most famous metal band in the world, rivaled only by Metallica and classic rock institutions like The Rolling Stones. That is not hyperbole or exaggeration, and while a lot of what I’m about to talk about pertains to just how massive the Iowa ensemble has become, this success wasn’t something that was planned, as the band came out at the right time and took full advantage of their position throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s. However, in that unprecedented growth and a streak of successful albums the band changed for the worse. This band, even to this day markets itself as a brotherhood, but recent events have shown just how nakedly false that is.
Slipknot circa 2009
Personally, while I’m not ashamed to admit I loved this band dearly and connected deeply with their music which I still listen to every now and then, I also have to be realistic.Whatever love I may still have for their music simply cannot make up for the fact that this band is not worth being invested in, and not necessarily because the music itself, but rather how disgustingly corporate Slipknot has become.
I’ll borrow something I wrote when I reviewed Behemoth’s last album: this article will be my own personal obituary to the enthusiasm and love I had for this band. While I’ll probably still go back to their first 4 albums with the classic lineup and even the ones they released in the 2010s, I don’t think I’ll ever be invested or interested in Slipknot ever again; in hindsight, I do not regret choosing to see Slayer live over Slipknot when both bands performed for the first time in Ecuador back in 2019.
But also, because there’s so much noise online around this band, I wanted to chronicle their progressive fall from grace so to speak, and give you the broad strokes of what has happened to this band between 2010 and today.
So much of the discourse around Slipknot—for the better part of a decade among its fandom, colloquially known as the “Maggots”—revolves around how the band morphed into a highly corporatized entity more concerned with merchandising and branding than any of the things they once claimed to stand against. It first started with the firing of their founding drummer and one of their primary creative forces, the late, great Joey Jordison in December 2013.
A lot has been said of the abrupt firing of one of Slipknot’s most famous and gifted original members. Very long story short, after a decade of intense drumming for Slipknot and various other projects, including replacing Lars Ulrich for a Metallica show, Joey Jordison started dealing with acute transverse myelitis that cost him the use of his legs, and had to do intense rehab after his diagnosis. The really shitty part is that when it became clear that Jordison was in no condition to perform and record until he had proper care, instead of letting his “friend” heal and recover, Shawn Crahan and Corey Taylor decided to coldly fire him.
Joey Jordison
This was the first crack in the perception of Slipknot as a “brotherhood;” even to this day when basically no one buys that, Corey Taylor still goes on his spiels about his “brothers” and whatnot in between songs, and the fact that it happened a couple of years after the tragic death of the band’s founding bassist Paul Gray made the firing sting more.
This would only be the first display of Slipknot’s grotesque morphing from a supposed brotherhood of misfits and outcasts into a soulless, corporate entity more concerned with merchandising and branding, and I guess also selling off to private equity, as if they couldn’t find a lower pit to sink in. More on that later.
Paul Gray
Many disgruntled and former Maggots—to this day—agree that a member like Jordison was irreplaceable, but Slipknot still replaced him. Jay Weinberg, son of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, joined “The Nine” on drums, alongside Alessandro Venturella who stepped in as the band’s new bassist. It should be noted that the band originally had no plans to disclose who these two were, but whose identities leaked thanks to fans clocking Venturella’s tattoos in “The Devil in I” music video where both new members were unveiled.
Despite the sourness of Jordison’s firing, the band’s 5th album, .5: The Gray Chapter was well received, and both Weinberg and Venturella were generally welcomed by the Maggots at large. For a good while a new status quo took shape, with the band continuing their relentless and ever-increasing touring cycles, and even Jordison, despite his sacking, was in better health and focused on his own projects, and didn’t seem to hold any animosity towards his old band. However, this generally peaceful period would not last.
Jay Weinberg
Alessandro Venturella
Shortly after the release of a standalone single called “All Out Life,” Chris Fehn, the band’s percussionist and backing vocalist of 20 years by then, abruptly left Slipknot, and would later sue the band, specifically accusing Taylor and Clown for “questionable business dealings” and alleging the band were withholding payments from him. Needless to say, Fehn who had one of the most recognizable masks and such a unique presence, was gone, and was also quickly replaced by Michael Pfaff, aka Torilla Man—who just so happened to be a friend of Clown, and also played drums in his project, Dirty Little Rabbits. He was available to take over percussion because the Slipknot train simply does not stop for absolutely anyone, regardless of how much time, effort and dedication they invested. Incidentally, Pfaff’s identity would not be officially disclosed—despite Maggots easily deducing it was him—until March 2022, approximately three years after he replaced Fehn.
Chris Fehn
I distinctly remember how Fehn’s split caused ripples in the fanbase and a good number of Maggots called it quits there and then. But then, the band’s 2019 album, We Are Not Your Kind came out, and was a resounding success not just commercially but critically, and it’s an album I still like in spite of everything. However, unlike the relatively warm welcome Weinberg and Venturella got, Pfaff was ultimately accepted by the Maggots out of the sheer mockery of being “Tortilla Man” and then all went relatively quiet until July 26, 2021.
Michael Pfaff, aka Tortilla Man
That day, Joey Jordison sadly passed away. While the proper tributes were made for him as they should, the tributes Slipknot themselves made just didn’t feel right. While yes, Jordison was an integral part of the band that they cannot ignore, and had to address his passing, the way they did it, and the stage tributes they did in their shows–displaying pictures of him and Paul Gray—just didn’t sit right with me. This tragedy happened during a protracted period of time where they were making contradicting statements about a new album, which felt odd because by this point people were used to Slipknot taking 4-5 years between albums. When The End, So Far finally came out in summer 2022 (their last album with Roadrunner Records after over 2 decades), something had changed.
For the first time, a Slipknot album came out with little to no fanfare, and the album itself had a very mixed reception, with people being lukewarm to it at best, and completely indifferent at worst. I should mention that Slipknot has had a dedicated anti-fandom (or haters if you will), for a very long time. Even during the band’s heyday, you’d see disgruntled Maggots who swore off the band after 2001’s IOWA, and would complain at length about everything since; while these dissenters never went away, they also never actually managed to be loud enough for people to care. Even during this time, what I remember was people just moving on without any further thought.
Even after the muted reception to The End, So Far most people and the vast majority of the Maggots just could not care to hear the haters out. Then, it was business as usual, until 2023. In June 7, 2023, it was announced that Craig “133” Jones, the band’s keyboardist/sampler and second-longest running member after Clown, parted ways with the band.
The announcement itself was shocking enough, but roughly an hour after the band made their social media posts announcing Jones’ departure, they deleted them, and never mentioned it again, and then a still undisclosed new member took up the keys left empty by Jones.
Craig “133” Jones
This would be the biggest break in the facade of the band being a “brotherhood,” because not only was another longstanding member gone, he was replaced like he was just a hired gun, and with a member that remains completely nameless (referred only as “New Guy” in promos) and without any type of clarification. Because Jones had a reputation for being the silent one (no online presence whatsoever either), there really is no way of knowing what the actual fuck happened, since Taylor and Clown—the actual bosses calling all the shots according to Chris Fehn—aren’t exactly forthcoming. All of this would pale to the November firing of Jay Weinberg.
The firing of Weinberg was by far the most criticized by fans because of how it eerily mirrored Jordison’s departure to a distressing level—namely that Weinberg was also having health problems, specifically hip pain that was preventing him from running, and had to get surgery and needed an extended leave of absence to recover. Only then, in his own words, would he be completely blindsided by his firing, and like with Jones, the band posted the announcement and deleted it shortly thereafter.
While this would trigger a mass wave of criticism from the fanbase, a couple months later, the band (in true corporate fashion) teased and then announced a 25th anniversary reissue of their debut album with a subsequent tour that was full of nostalgia pandering. A new drummer was brought in thereafter as well, and would have also remained nameless if not for a fan leak that found labels for the new band masks that identified the new sampler as “Jeff,” allegedly Jeff Karnowski, also formerly of Clown’s side-project Dirty Little Rabbits. (This is just unconfirmed speculation based on zoomed in BTS pictures.) Former Sepultura drummer Eloy Casagrande, (who actually quit Sepultura to join Slipknot) was actually announced unlike the former. Incidentally, their masks are by far the most uninteresting and boring looking.
Eloy Casagrande
The “Slipknot like its ‘99″ tour would trundle on as planned; much like the last album didn’t elicit much fanfare online, even the return of the fan favorite deep cut “Scissors” to the band’s setlist was met with apathy because at that point, only 4 of the 9 members who wrote and recorded that song are actually in the band. The inclusion comes across as a shallow appeal to Maggots’ nostalgia, but the tour was still a success, with the prevailing sentiment among fans being “if I don’t see Slipknot live today, they’ll fire another member tomorrow”.
“Jeff” / New Guy
Another two years went by with the same sense of apathy towards the band unless you were a diehard who still wanted to stick around, or a hater who finds enjoyment shitting on the band they once loved.
After the tour, things went relatively quiet again. The most significant news was the moves Jay Weinberg was making: joining Infectious Grooves and Suicidal Tendencies, becoming a dad, and releasing music with a variety of collaborators. Overall the dude is fine and thankfully healthier now that he doesn’t need to be constantly worrying about another 8 month+ tour. He’s also been doing a lot of interviews and in one of them, with Chris Garza of Suicide Silence, he revealed that the day he did his audition for Slipknot was the day Jordison was unceremoniously fired. (He also hadn’t known which band he was actually auditioning for.)
This news didn’t have as much impact because of the aforementioned apathy in the fanbase. In hindsight it’s not surprising that the callous firing was this corporate, with a replacement at the ready, or that they would pull the same move for Weinberg a decade later and under the same circumstances. How dare our paid mook ask for time off to get life-saving surgery!
Corey Taylor and Shawn “Clown” Crahan
But the other downright insulting news that happened before the final nail in the coffin was when, in late 2025 Clown announced that Slipknot had sold the majority stake of Slipknot’s music to Harbourview Equity Partners.
Yes, you read that right: Slipknot, the band that wrote songs like “Surfacing” and “Killpop,” had just sold their music to a private equity firm. For me this was the final straw, the absolute, irrefutable proof that the band I loved were happily selling out in the most disgusting way possible to the system. Again, this news should’ve been a wildfire alarm for the fanbase but the Maggots could not care less, and even the biggest detractors couldn’t muster the smugness to feel vindicated in their hatred. All of this was just so par for the course at this point.
As I stated in the beginning, I’m writing this to a) make a clear overview of how Slipknot fell out of favor with the Maggots for anyone interested, and b) give this band my final word and move on.
While prior to the most recent news that I’ll get to right now, I do have to acknowledge that I can’t honestly blame the Maggots as a whole for being so apathetic towards the band. We’re going through a living nightmare plagued with genocides, a worldwide bigotry-fueled wave of fascism, environmental ruin, and financial instability; there simply isn’t enough time in a day to care about a washed-up band in silly masks and jumpsuits, and yet, I keep coming back to how Slipknot was there when I was at my lowest and during similarly tumultuous times. It does hurt that this band can’t give some respite or sanctuary away from the living nightmare that is 2026.
And so we finally reach the big, breaking double whammy that has finally broken the Maggots, the firing of turntablist and keyboardist Sid Wilson, the latest, long-running member of their classic lineup to be ejected.
Sid Wilson, aka DJ Starscream
Why this particular firing sent so many ripples across the fan-base after a half decade of apathy and disinterest is for a couple reasons. For one, the news was broken by TMZ, the infamous celebrity gossip tabloid and paparazzi enablers of all fucking places. They somehow got the news from an internal source close to Slipknot that Wilson had been fired internally, alleging years’ long mistreatment of other members as the reason and was “a long time coming.” While Slipknot as a whole didn’t confirm or deny anything, the band’s guitarist and primary songwriter Jim Root made a snarky story on Instagram dismissing the news and telling fans “maybe wait until there’s more information.”
But then, Kelly Osbourne, daughter of the late Ozzy Osbourne, and Wilson’s former fiancé, went on to make several posts expressing her anger towards Wilson, basically painting the picture of a neglectful, self-obsessed father and partner who avoids any accountability.
Sid Wilson and Kelly Osbourne
Combine this with TMZ’s own reporting, and it seems like Sid Wilson is basically an out-of-control asshole, so personally, I can’t say I’m too sad at this firing, on top of my general displeasure with the band. It wouldn’t be long before Slipknot themselves finally confirmed Wilson’s firing, and like clockwork, as soon as the post was made and spread, they deleted it. This is now a pattern on their part. TMZ would make a follow-up about this claiming that the band “freaked out” over losing control of the rollout of Wilson’s firing. Which may explain what they did next.
A month after this clusterfuck, Slipknot released “Arsenal” their newest single in 4 years, their first release on their own label, (Sic)est Records, and the first track to feature Eloy Casagrande and “Jeff” playing drums and samples respectively.
To say this song and music video were poorly received would be an understatement. The song is garbage, just a directionless mess that not even Casagrande’s masterful drumming can save.
The viscerally negative reaction could not be surprising because everything reeks of this being a panic mode move to try to turn the page on Wilson’s firing, which is further exacerbated by just how much scratching this song features. They haven’t had this much turntable scratching in a very long time, which was Wilson’s specialty, so everything landed as poorly as it could have.
So much so that a few days later Jim Root told news outlets that “Arsenal” is not indicative of, nor will be featured on their next record. They can try to sell this as a standalone single all they want, but they can’t fool me, this is Root doing damage control for the band because the song was so lambasted.
This is basically where this arc of Slipknot’s story stops for now, because at this point they are working on their 8th album. How it will perform or be received is anyone’s guess, but considering that the other current news related to Slipknot is Corey Taylor—and disappointingly, Serj Tankian of System of a Down—agreeing to feature on a Falling in Reverse song, things look bleak. They’re just checking all the boxes about being mercenary sellouts who won’t say no to any paycheck regardless of who’s writing it, such as a terminally-online, bootlicking transphobe and “alleged” abuser like Ronald “the clown” Radke. Beyond that, it’s not hard to see why the Maggots have officially tapped out of being Maggots, and not just because people are complaining online or posting memes.
While looking into the various reactions from Maggots, I found out there is (or was) a dedicated subcommunity of Maggots whose main drive was collecting Slipknot masks from their various eras, from replicas to even auctioned stage-worn masks, with a prominent channel on YouTube called House of Masks. He made an update video about this whole mess where he saw in various forums he frequents people selling off their entire Slipknot mask collections, and even the long running “Slipknot History” fan website which documented and archived the band’s history went completely down, i.e. the site’s owner didn’t renew the license and let it die.
So yeah, at this point when even absolute diehards who invested so much time and money for the sake of this band are calling it quits, it’s not an exaggeration to call it the end of the Maggots as we know them.
Suffice to say, I, like many others, are basically done with Slipknot. I’m not naive though, they’ve become so big and so prominent that they’re basically never gonna go away any time soon, but at the same time, I don’t need to concern myself with them, nor do I need to check anything they do next because it’s just not fun. There’s no fun or enjoyment in following a band that elicits only anger, frustration and disappointment.
All I know right now is that I still feel strongly about the Slipknot albums that I listened to at a time they offered genuine comfort, and I can still marvel at the skill and talent that went into those albums. I’ll always have that regardless of Slipknot themselves, and I know I’m not alone in feeling that way. To finish, RIP Paul Gray and Joey Jordison, you two were truly the heart and soul of Slipknot, and your absence is proof that the band as it exists today lost both when they lost you.
