1.1.1. What genre does Slipknot belong to?
Hard to explain, but let's put it this way: they're a band that fuses elements taken from hardcore (ie. aggressive vocals, heavy chunks of distortion), goregrind (ie. blast beats, gore imagery), and modern rock. They're not metal, and they're certainly not plain hard rock either.

1.1.2. Are Slipknot "satanists"?
If you're using the judeo-satanic visuals Slipknot employs on their stage set, album covers, and merchandise as grounds for them being a satanist then you certainly know nothing about the religion at all. Satanism is a separate religion, its no different from Buddhism, Wicca, Taoism, and others. The reports you hear about satanists sacrificing animals, engaging in mignight orgies, burning churches, etc. are URBAN MYTHS. People who commit such acts are called anti-Christian, not satanists.

Anti-Christians are people who do things that desecrates christianity because they believe it makes them look evil. Scrawling 666 on your notebook for starters is considered anti-Christian because according to the bible, it stands for the number inscribed on the head of the anti-Christ when he/she appears during the time of the Revelation. The goat symbolizes the face of the devil or the shape of the baphomet, again: according to christian beliefs, and so on and so forth. Most bands who uses these symbols are just doing it to attract attention and scare people....nothing more.

Slipknot may be considered anti-Christian because of their prolifient use of these symbols, but they already admitted that the use of it are for entertainment and shock purposes only.

» 1.2. Ex-Members

1.2.1. Who is Josh Brainard?
He played guitars for the band and is part of the original Slipknot line-up. Josh left the band shortly before the completion of the s/t album due to personal reasons. Its not because he doesn't want to be away from his family like most people think. He recorded ALL songs from the self-titled album except for Purity which was done by his replacement James Root, which is currently the permanent rhythm guitar player for the band. James also used to wear Josh's bondage hood for a short period of time until he felt uncomfortable wearing it and later on replaced it with a jester mask.

» 1.3. Lyrical Content/Songs

1.3.1. What does "if you're 555, then I'm 666" mean?
555 is the number of man, whereas 666 is the number of the devil. That's basically Slipknot's way of saying that they're not conforming to how people want them to be.

1.3.2. I have two versions of the self-titled album, what's the difference?
The original s/t album has Purity and Frail Limb Nursery. Both songs are based on a Crimescene fictional story which Corey thought was real, so due to copyright reasons, they had to take it off and replace it with a song from one of their digipacks -- Me Inside.

» 1.4. Tell-Tale Feuds

1.4.1. Is there really a feud between Mushroomhead and Slipknot?
There was one I believe....back in 99, but its over now as far as I can tell. Besides, the feud wasn't even between the bands -- its the fans sticking up for their respective bands that made the whole topic blow up to epic proportions. When Slipknot came out, supporters of Mushroomhead (mostly from Cleveland) accused Slipknot of ripping off the bands costumes and masks. What's even weirder is that there's a rumor going around that Mushroomhead rejected a proposed contract by Roadrunner and this is the labels way of getting back at them, which Roadrunner vehemently denies. When Slipknot trekked to Cleveland as part of their tour in support of the new album, Mushroomhead fans flocked to the concert and peppered Slipknot with batteries forcing them off-stage. Slipknot then later finds out about the whole Mushroomhead thing and decided to contact Mushroomhead about it:

"We've been doing this for so long now that we can't change who we are just because another band is doing the same thing. There is like no problem between the two bands though and I think Slipknot is a good band. There have been rumors of feuds between the two camps as our fans and theirs don't really get along but its just stupid and we wanna put an end to it. When Slipknot rolled through town here Corey from Slipknot actually called our voice mail and had nothing but kind words for us and said he'd like to talk with us as there has been a lot of talk about a feud that isn't coming from our side or his. We're just hopefully gonna have the opportunity to sit down and get through this crap and maybe even do a tour together." -- J Mann

The feud is dead for now, but as long as more people (who chances are have been exposed to Slipknot first) finds Mushroomhead, they'd immediately come to the conclusion that this band is a Slipknot rip-off. No, neither bands ripped off each other because they weren't the first ones to come up with it in the first place. Mr. Bungle for instance, has members that wear kabuki and pig masks, and wears cover-alls as well.