Slipknot have performed Gematria (The Killing Name) live for the very first time.
The US nine-piece pulled out the previously unplayed track from 2008’s All Hope Is Gone on Friday, February 28, during their headline set at Knotfest Melbourne. Watch footage below.
In a 2023 interview, singer Corey Taylor told the All Things Music podcast that he was desperate to air Gematria on the live stage, but the rest of the band was against it.
“I’ve always wanted to open a concert with Gematria,” he said (via Loudwire). “There are certain odiums around the way that that song was created and recorded, which is why some of the guys in the band are like, ‘Fuck that, we’ll never play it.’
“[The reason] isn’t even sentimental. It’s resentment. But for me, man, it’s such a fucking burner that I just love that song. I can listen to that shit all fucking day. It just comes screaming out of no-fucking-where. But it’ll never happen. Unless the pope ends up opening up for Slipknot someday, that shit will never happen.”
The “resentment” Taylor mentioned may refer to Slipknot’s very public distaste towards All Hope Is Gone. Founding percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan has voiced his displeasure with the band recording in their home state of Iowa for the first time during the sessions.
“[All Hope Is Gone is] my least favourite [Slipknot album]: no tension, no pain – just efficiency,” he told Google Play in 2014. “Being able to go home, able to sleep, is not good, not for what we do.”
Guitarist Jim Root added that the producer, Dave Fortman, was unable to get the band together in the same room.
Despite this dissatisfaction with the studio time, Slipknot have long been hyping the release of an album recorded simultaneously to All Hope Is Gone, called Look Outside Your Window. Crahan said in December that the long-anticipated project is in the hands of the band’s management and set to come out soon.
Until then, Slipknot will continue to tour Australia and New Zealand until March 11. They’ll come to Europe to play the festival circuit in June, before appearing at Inkcarceration in Mansfield, Ohio on July 19. See all details and get tickets via the band’s website.
