UK-based Metal Hammer has posted what they are calling The Definitive History Of Every Slipknot Mask. Following is an excerpt from a look at the collective history of the nine-headed masked monster that took the world by storm back in 1999.

It was, of course, Slipknot’s lynchpin Clown who came up with the idea of their masks. It was shortly before the band’s first ever gig, on Halloween in 1995, and the band were rehearsing.

“We were all going around the room asking, ‘What are you going to wear?’" remembered Clown. “I pulled up the clown mask I had and said, ‘I’m wearing this’.” It did not go down well with his bandmates.

“A few of them were like, ‘No fucking way. You can’t be the only guy wearing some stupid mask’,” he recalled. “So I said, ‘I really don’t care what you think, this is who I am and this is what I’m going to do.’ So here we are all these years later …”

Iconic, terrifying and, sometimes, quite funny: the Slipknot masks became such a part of their early legend that the photographer Paul Harries, who shot the band countless times in the early days, recalls being stopped by fans outside shows and asked if he’d seen Slipknot without their masks. “Do they have real faces underneath?” he was asked once. And with that, a legend was born.

Corey Taylor (1999)
Featuring dreadlocks poking out of the top and an expressionless, ghostly face, singer Corey Taylor felt his first mask allowed the band’s music to be purer. “Music then was basically a template for a bunch of hot guys to sell a bunch of shit that didn’t mean anything. We put a mask on and we’re not about our fucking faces. It’s always gonna be music first.”

Corey Taylor (2008)
In some ways Taylor’s scariest mask is the scariest of all in this period. It featured no hair at all, and had an almost entirely featureless face that appeared stitched to his skull. Eerily blank.

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Slipknot have premiered their new video for "XIX”. The track is lifted from the band’s .5: The Gray Chapter album, released in 2014. Watch the new clip below:

Slipknot is set to play a string of UK arena shows in February 2016. Frontman Corey Taylor comments: "Any time we get the chance to come over to the UK, it's awesome. Hopefully the fans have as much fun as we do.  We'll be putting together a great set for them, and as we fill out the bill with bands, we hope the excitement gets even bigger."

Dates are as follows

February
8 - Cardiff - Motorpoint Arena
9 - London - Alexandra Palace
12 - Birmingham - Genting Arena
13 - Leeds - First Direct Arena

Tickets are available on pre-sale from 9:00am on Wednesday, October 7th through the Slipknot OT9 fan club here, with general on sale from 9:00am on Friday, October 9th over at LiveNation.co.uk