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Slipknot

The world of heavy metal was significantly shaken when Slipknot burst onto the scene in 1995. Far from being an ordinary band, these Iowa natives dispelled the notion that metal was all about raucous noise. Slipknot, with their menacing masks and convoluted lyrics, breathed a fresh (and terrifying) new life into a genre that was beginning to feel repetitive. Their aggressive rhythm, lyrical sophistication, and atmospheric textures heralded a new wave in the metal industry, prompting even the most die-hard metalheads to sit back and take notice.

The most iconic aspect of Slipknot's brand is undoubtedly their pioneering use of music videos, an art form within the metal genre many before had underutilized. The band's videos are a visual manifestation of their chaotic and heady sounds. Notably directed by the likes of Shawn Crahan and Tony Petrossian, each video plunges the viewer into a Dutch Renaissance-inspired tableau of grotesque expressions, bizarre acts, and stark storytelling. In this gory, shadowy world, Slipknot reveals their dystopian vision of reality. One knee-slapping tidbit about their videos is that despite the intense, scary themes, they use rubber masks instead of real human skins, a detail that doesn't fail to maintain the nightmarish fantasy. Their impact on visual artistry in music was thus monumental, paving the way for other bands to experiment more with their videography.

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