25 Years of Slipknot: A Testament To Their Enduring Legacy

Celebrating 25 years of their debut album, Slipknot’s anniversary tour hit Manchester’s Co-Op Live this week; and to say it was a visceral experience would be a gross understatement. Despite the fact that over two decades have passed since the self-titled album was released, the show felt entirely novel, as if the band had just emerged from a time machine. Opening the show with a speech from the band’s founding frontman, Corey Taylor, he addressed the horde of 23,000 fans by welcoming us back to “19-fucking-99!”. While that may be a mere nod to the year the album was released, the sentiment felt real. The crowd—many of whom weren’t even born when Slipknot first came out—were absolutely feral, their unapologetic love for the band transcending generational gaps.

As a plethora of red lights unveil the iconic Slipknot logo draped across the stage, echoes of distorted, and frankly unsettling, voices of children and nursery rhymes reverberate throughout the arena. Slipknot took to the spotlight in their legendary red jumpsuits, a staple outfit from their debut album, and watched as the crowd immediately erupt into an unstoppable force of frenzied mosh pits as far as the eye could see. Greeted by a cocktail concoction of both mesmerising but terrifying Slipknot masks, the band get into position while Taylor prescient’s the show, before immediately launching into the unforgiving, ‘heretic anthem’, Eyeless.

“Tonight we celebrate 25 years of our first album. So, if you’re a casual Slipknot fan… I’m sorry, this is not the show for you. Tonight you won’t be hearing anything written after 1999” – Corey Taylor

From start to finish, the fourteen song setlist flowed perfectly into one another as Sid Wilson, pioneering, live-mixing, turntablist, curated seamless, extended instrumental breaks between songs. Not only giving the other eight members opportunities to take a moment backstage to (presumably take their masks off and) breathe, but also generating an adrenaline fuelled atmosphere. Wilson, alongside his bandmates, have an incredible talent for creating a brutal yet beautiful community of chaos to their uproariously reactive crowds; their shows seemingly acting as part concert, part rave.

Despite the fact the band has been playing these songs for literal decades, there was something undoubtedly new about this particular performance—the chaotic energy, the reckless abandon, and that signature Slipknot insanity—was ever present and in full force. It felt like watching a band that had just exploded onto the scene, not one that had been around for a quarter of a century. Slipknot’s ability to make their songs feel just as relevant, and even more urgent, after 25 years is a true testament to their enduring legacy in metal and beyond.

“This song is for anyone who told you who to be, what you can and can’t do, what to think or say… Including me. This your own national fucking anthem.”

Corey Taylor introducing “Spit It Out”

Fascinatingly, throughout the show I found myself just as disturbed by the manic, masked men now in my mid-20s as I was at fifteen. Amid the nine members relentlessly and vigorously head banging, Taylor himself looked like a man possessed; sporting a new mask specifically made for this tour, featuring 20 inch, questionable braids and (genuinely unnerving) glowing red eyes, which at several points were the only thing visible on stage.

Though, his new mask didn’t entirely serve its sole purpose as Taylor, ever the consummate showman, took a nasty trip over an amp upon re-entering the stage. Laughing off the mishap, he addressed the crowd and jokingly admitted, “I don’t know if you noticed, but I can’t see a fucking thing in this mask. That really fucking hurt“. Laughing it off with a reference to the classic Family Guy “Aaah!” meme, the frontman actively mocked his own clumsiness. This brief moment of mid-show comedic relief was an ample reminder that beneath the jumpsuits, masks and angst, they are more than their on-stage personas. Each member being their entirely own self within a group of deeply passionate individuals with an obvious dedication to their craft, not just heinous characters pulled out of a high-budget haunted house.

In many ways, this show felt like a ritual—half celebration, half exorcism—posing as a reminder as to why Slipknot have been a force to be reckoned with for so long. The night had a truly timeless quality, not only due to the obvious nostalgia, but because of the band’s ability to keep it new— despite Slipknot not performing these songs for so long, their intensity is unwavering. In the end, this wasn’t just a trip down memory lane—it was a full-throttle reminder that Slipknot are still at the top of their game and unleashing chaos in ways no other band can. Their 25th-anniversary celebration wasn’t just a nod to the past, but a declaration that they’re still burning bright.