
9/9/09 wasn't only notable as the day that The Beatles: Rock Band was released. Off in another musical universe, that date was also celebrated as the 10th anniversary of Slipknot. There was a time when it didn't look certain that the band would last ten minutes: walking around with a nu-metal look wasn't going to make you a lot of friends in Des Moines, but being ostracized did wonders for their music. As drummer Joey Jordison once explained, "We got so used to having the middle finger thrown at us, that when we finally threw it back, we did so with ten times the venom." Hence the Halloween masks and costumes they wear on (and who knows, maybe off) stage, guaranteed to make squares uncomfortable.