Slipknot, an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, are recognized as one of the pioneering bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. The band's primary influences include Black Sabbath, Slayer, Judas Priest, Korn, AC/DC, Kiss and Beastie Boys. Developing a lean and aggressive brand of metal formed from thrash, hardcore and death metal, they are generally listed as nu metal. Known for often chaotic and energetic live shows, the extreme performance style is provided by their large line-up featuring a typical heavily down-tuned guitar set-up (lead, rhythm, and bass guitars), two percussionists in addition to the primary drummer, and electronics (samplers and turntables).

The band formed in late 1995 and underwent several line-up changes following the independent release of their debut album, "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat." in 1996. Their debut self-titled studio album, "Slipknot", was released in 1999 and was followed by two further studio albums, "Iowa" in 2001 and "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" in 2004.
Their early work hosted a diverse range of vocal styles, ranging from rapping to occasional singing to growled vocals. In more recent work, this vocal style remains present, but now includes more melodic singing. The lyrics generally follow a very aggressive tone and feature themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy and psychosis.

The band is known for its attention-grabbing image, the members wear matching uniform jumpsuits and homemade masks. In the past, their jumpsuits have featured large UPC barcodes printed on the back and sleeves, which are identical to the barcode on their album, "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.". Aside from their real names, members of the band are referred to by numbers zero through eight. With each new album, Slipknot has attained new masks and coveralls, although some masks do not change dramatically and can be seen as more of an extension of what they previously were. The masks have been subject of much criticism, generally thought of as a gimmick to try sell their product - the band however strongly object these claims, proclaiming that the masks are used to draw the attention away from themselves and to the music. Several members have said how the masks are a visual representation of how the music makes them feel and how they put the members in an animal-like mentality. The coveralls and numbers are an extension of their anti-image concept they created with the masks.