“I do remember seeing Corey naked a lot”: Producer recalls carnage making Slipknot’s legendary sophomore album, Iowa
In many cases, a closing track is usually a sign that a record is nearing its end… unless you’re Slipknot, that is. On their 2001 release, Iowa, the masked metal unit saved their longest, most evil cut for last, serving up a title-track that sunk listeners into a twisted 15-minute-long finale straight from hell.
Sonically and lyrically sinister, the track explores the mania one might feel after being locked alone with a corpse for far too long. And, keen to authentically embody that madness, frontman Corey Taylor infamously did all he could to get into a dark headspace. We’re talking drugs, nudity and rolling around with shards of glass.
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As producer Ross Robinson explains in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, the foundation of the Iowa record was set after a drug-addled jam session. “[The band] pounded a bottle [of NyQuil] and we went into this room… that’s supposed to be haunted, all mouldy and shitty…,” he recalls. “They started jamming and there was this vibe and presence that was the foundation for the whole album.”
“I remember he did that on vocal overdubs… he had to strip his soul all the way,” he notes.
Of course, Taylor did take the notion of “stripping his soul” away a little bit literally. “I do remember seeing him naked a lot,” Robinson admits. But, as he puts it, the nudity felt like it was just a by-product of all the carnal, twisted themes the record was exploring. “We’d get all woo-woo around the lyrics, go deep into the meaning and the tone of everything, so I’d have chills by the time I hit record,” he says.
Over the years, Taylor has explained the meaning of Slipknot’s most macabre nu-metal magnum opus. In 2012, the frontman explained his “thought process” behind Iowa during a fan Q&A: “Oh boy… as I’ve said before, I am a little unbalanced, to put it lightly. I can [mentally] put myself in several very strange situations… But Iowa was really the chance to take it even further. Basically, Iowa is about spending time with a corpse… Don’t judge me! And I’m just doing… beautiful, fucked up things to it…”
“I was a little fucked up when I recorded it, stripped naked… I wish you could have seen Clown’s face,” he continued. “He was in the fucking control room, and there’s this little window… I just start taking [my clothes] off… It was almost like method [acting] at that point. I wanted to go so fucking deep into it… [After I’d finished], Clown looks me right in the fucking face and he just goes, ‘Taylor, what the fuck is wrong with you?’”
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