Slipknot launched their official YouTube channel in October 2006 and have amassed over 7.77 million subscribers. Their promo videos, live clips and audio clips have been streamed over 4.4 billion times - and all while hosting some of the most subversive, bizarre and straight-up terrifying visuals in popular music history.
Here, then, are Slipknot's 10 most viewed clips according to YouTube.
10. Sulfur
2009 single Sulfur was co-directed by Clown and P.R. Brown in Los Angeles before the band's final two shows of the All Hope Is Gone world tour, and was to be the final video to feature late bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison. The concept is fairly simple, but it's the lush cinematography which makes this stand out from other metal videos. The video – which has been viewed 115 million times on YouTube – was filmed in a brick room, with members restricted to three per frame to give it a claustrophobic effect. The video is interspersed with slo-mo clips of each bandmate floating underwater. Fun fact: sulphur is insoluble in water, which is why the Iowan nonet don’t fizz away in the water sequences, like angry Berocca.
9. Killpop
Taken from the album, .5: The Gray Chapter, this M. Shawn Crahan directed promo was shot in a derelict house. The band perform while two women in facepaint appear and dance around the ruins. The video – now seen 122 million times – features social media stars Shauna and Shannon Baker, who are also otherwise known as The Baker Twins. There's a goat too, but we're pretty certain it's not the same animal which appeared on the Iowa artwork.
8. Unsainted
The lead single from their 2019 album We Are Not Your Kind begins with a 30-second shot of an elderly woman played by Iris Karina. During this overlong scene, the gaze is unwavering and she inhales and exhales deeply, before opening her eyes. It cuts to a younger woman in a veil, with the Slipknot logo painted over her lips. There's many closeups of the nine members with disorienting images of structures. Corey Taylor leaves a church to discover statues of his bandmates, only to torch his own stone likeness. The video has been watched 122 million times, possibly by members of the global sculpting community.
7. Wait and Bleed
This live performance was shot during the band's appearance at Ozzfest in 1999. Directed by Thomas Mignone, it goes some way to capturing the chaos of Slipknot's early shows. To date, the video has been viewed 134 million times.
6. Dead Memories
Taken from All Hope Is Gone, this video was directed by Clown collaborator P.R. Brown. The opening shot is of the Iowa State Capitol building and pulls out to reveal Corey sitting on its steps, holding a shovel. He goes to a field and begins to dig a deep hole. He falls through it, and discovers himself in a pink room dressed in his mask and black jacket and trousers. He walks through different rooms to find his bandmates. Mick blocks a corridor and then there's a pillow fight. Chris Fehn lights candles in a room which features a Basquiat-style mural and the video fades to black as the vocalist blows a candle out. Fake ending! He's back out in the rain, digging another hole. This high budget conceptual video been viewed 137 million times thus far.
5. Snuff
Another Crahan/Brown collaboration, this time for the 2009 single Snuff. The video, which is filmed inside an apartment, features cameos by Ashley Laurence (Hellraiser) and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange). Corey serves up some fine acting here as a man struggling to come to terms with a lost love, makes a cup of tea, crushes a wine glass with his bare hands, then leaves the building dressed in make-up and a skirt. There's a fleeting appearance by a Scottish Terrier, which you rarely see in metal videos these days. View count: 153 million.
4. Before I Forget
This 2005 video was the first to feature the band unmasked and in their civvies. Directed by Tony Petrossian (who also directed the promos for Duality and Vermillion), this four-minute clip doesn't give away the band's identities, instead relying on close-ups and distorted angles to keep a sense of mystery. To date, Before I Forget has been viewed 253 million times.
3. Duality
Taken from the album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), Duality (directed by Mark Klasfeld and Tony Petrossian) features a mob of Slipknot fans who rush into a Des Moines home and completely destroy it. The video cost an estimated $500,000 to make and the family who opened up their home (which was due to be renovated) were compensated an extra $50,000 for the excess damage caused during the shoot. The fans were told not to damage anything but when that riff kicks in, what are you going to do? This video has enjoyed upwards of 362 million streams.
2. The Devil in I
The second single to be released from .5: The Gray Chapter, this video features the band performing in an asylum surrounded by fans in straitjackets. Throughout the video, the band harm themselves in a variety of gruesome ways, including Mick Thomson ripping his own face off while Corey Taylor blows himself up at a table. Viewer discretion is absolutely advised. 388 million views for this one so far.
1. Psychosocial
The most popular Slipknot video on YouTube is Psychosocial, which has clocked up 478 million views as of March 2023. The promo for the second single from All Hope Is Gone was directed by Paul Brown, and features the band playing outside Sound Farm studios in Jamaica, Iowa, surrounded by fire.
