Leading up to the Slipknot 10th anniversary in June 2009, the band was at a crossroads. Two years prior, they had released All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. They were headlining Download Festival. They were giants. But founding bassist Paul Gray was struggling with addiction (tragically, he would pass away a year later in 2010).
The 10th anniversary reissue, released on September 9, 2009 (9/9/09—a date numerologists loved), was a victory lap and a memorial rolled into one.
To understand the importance of the Slipknot 10th anniversary, you have to remember what rock radio sounded like in the summer of '99. The world was dominated by Limp Bizkit’s frat-rap-rock, Korn’s brooding melancholy, and the lingering grunge of Pearl Jam. Then came Slipknot. slipknot 10th anniversary
Hiding behind crude Halloween masks and boiler suits, they didn’t fit in. They were too heavy for nu-metal, too weird for hardcore, and too violent for radio. Tracks like (sic) and Eyeless opened with percussion batteries that sounded like a tool shed being thrown down a staircase. Corey Taylor’s vocal range—shifting from a whisper to a guttural roar in seconds—was unlike anything heard before.
The album was produced by Ross Robinson, the so-called "godfather of nu-metal," but he insisted this wasn't nu-metal. "It was violence," Robinson later said. By the time the Wait and Bleed music video hit MTV, the mask was no longer a gimmick; it was a necessity. The band was anonymous, but the pain was universal. Leading up to the Slipknot 10th anniversary in
No reflection on the Slipknot 10th anniversary is complete without acknowledging the shadow that fell immediately after. In May 2010, less than a year after the reissue dropped, Paul Gray was found dead in a hotel room in Urbandale, Iowa.
The reissue suddenly became a sacred artifact. It was the last major release that featured Gray prominently in the promotional material and the last time fans saw that iteration of the "pig" mask in high definition. The joy of the anniversary was quickly replaced by grief, forever tying the memory of the reissue to the loss of "The Pig." Today, the 10th anniversary edition is the definitive way to hear Paul Gray’s bass tone—that low-end rumble that held the chaos together. They were giants
During the 10th anniversary press cycle, the band performed the album in its entirety at select shows. Playing "Slipknot" front to back revealed the album's hidden architecture.
The 2018 anniversary tour is historically significant because it was one of the final runs featuring the "Gray Chapter" lineup before further changes occurred in 2019. It was also a period where the band was actively testing new material that would eventually become the 2019 album, We Are Not Your Kind.