Slipknot's 1999 self-titled debut isn't just a landmark for the nu-metal era, it's one of the most fiercely loved, influential and, at this point, although it's weird to say, classic metal records of all time. It may not rank as the Nine's single greatest achievement thus far, but its importance in the metal canon is unquestionable, and the songs that make up its original 16-song tracklist still have an edge on most modern bands.
Ranking every track on this record is difficult, and not just because there're so many stellar songs on here, but because there're so many different versions of this record. The OG release. The 1999 reissue that came later that year with two songs absent ("Frail Limb Nursery" and "Purity") and another song added "Me Inside." And then the 10-year anniversary edition that reinstated "Purity" but not "Frail Limb Nursery," and tacks on a bunch of bonus songs that some younger fans have grandfathered in as official cuts.
For this exercise, we stuck with the initial version of Slipknot that was released on June 29th, 1999. That edition — the one the band initially intended people to experience — didn't include "Me Inside," the song that replaced "Purity" on the reissue, or "Get This," which was initially just a bonus track, even if it appears on the normal tracklist on streaming services today.
The only edit we did to the initial tracklisting was make "Eeyore" its own song, because while it originally appeared as a hidden track at the end of "Scissors," it was always treated by fans — and the band, when playing it live — as its own song, and has been reflected as such in subsequent reissues of the album.
With all of those small yet important details out of the way, below is our definitive ranking of every single song on Slipknot's monumental debut.
16. "742617000027"
The album's eerie intro sets an uneasy mood and queues up its first real track with a repeated Charles Manson documentary sample: "The whole thing I think is sick." It's cool, but if you skipped over it to start with "(sic)," your experience with Slipknot wouldn't be all that different.
15. "Frail Limb Nursery"
After appearing as a creepy prelude to "Purity" on Slipknot's original release, both tracks were cut from the reissue that followed later in 1999 due to copyright infringement. And even when "Purity" was reinstated on the record's 10-year anniversary edition, "Frail Limb Nursery" wasn't. That's OK — it's just an interlude, and a 16-track record doesn't need another interlude.
14. "Only One"
By the time the album's penultimate track, "Only One," comes up, you've already heard several better versions of this kind of Slipknot song. Corey Taylor's rapped verses sound awkward and a little directionless, and the instrumentation relies too heavily on one riff while the chanted chorus feels like a weaker rehash of "Liberate" or "No Life."
13. "Diluted"
If Slipknot has one flaw, it's that the album is severely front-loaded. Sure, there are some utterly incredible tracks buried deep in its runtime, but then there're songs like "Diluted" that are just… fine. There's nothing bad about this track, but it very much feels like a side-B iteration of a sound Slipknot knocked out of the park on side A.
12. "Tattered and Torn"
Of the three interludes on Slipknot, "Tattered and Torn" is by far the best. This creepy, woozy mostly-instrumental centerpiece sounds like a broken down carnival ride, and provides a crucial, disorienting reset to the album's flow after the anthemic five songs that precede it. It's not a fully formed song, but it serves an important function in maintaining the album's unpredictable, unsettling vibe.
11. "Liberate"
"Liberate! MY MADNESS!" This is one of many songs on the album where you instantly hear the screamed chorus just by reading its title. The elliptical, breakcore-influenced groove of this song is distinct to this era of the band, and it's a fun one to sing along with. But on an album that's packed with uber-memorable bangers, "Liberate" doesn't rank among the most essential.
10. "No Life"
There're so many tracks on here that are just so easy to sink your teeth into and scream back like a feral animal. The way "No Life" snaps from minimal, bass-driven, rapped verses to table-flipping, bullet-spraying screams during the chorus ("This is NO! KIND OF LIFE!") never gets old. Again, on a weaker album, this would be a highlight. On Slipknot, it somehow only reaches the No. 10 spot.
9. "Prosthetics"
"Prosthetics" might be the album's most underrated song, and we can kind of see why. This ambitious, five-minute dirge is filled with trudging instrumentation and haunting atmosphere, and there're no vocals on the first half of the song. But once Taylor's screams come in, this shit pops the fuck off, and just continues to morph into a different passage every 30 seconds until it suddenly screeches to a near-halt and then falls off a cliff into oblivion. Weird, ambitious, head-scratching and very fucking cool.
8. "Scissors"
"Scissors" is basically Slipknot's version of Korn's "Daddy," the extended, tortured freakout that closes out the Bakersfield nu-metal pioneers' own self-titled debut. The way this song builds up and breaks down several times throughout its eight-minute length is exhausting in an artful way, and the little bridge where Taylor mutters, "Biding my time until the time is right," is more than a little reminiscent of Jonathan Davis. Comparisons aside, "Scissors" is a thrillingly intense Slipknot track that actually justifies its lengthy runtime.
7. "Spit It Out"
"Spit It Out" is the second-most popular song on this album, and one of Slipknot's most recognizable tracks overall. Its stutter-step chorus — "SPIT! IT-OUT!" — and Clown's rhythmic keg pings are iconic threads in Slipknot's musical patchwork, and it's never a bad time hearing the band bust this out live. But let's be real: This is a starter-kit Slipknot song. There're several other tracks on Slipknot that quench a true Maggot's thirst for the band's old-school intensity in a way "Spit It Out" doesn't quite do.
6. "Purity"
Due to its absence from the 1999 reissue of the album — a version that became widespread by virtue of its accessibility in stores — "Purity" earned the mystique of being the quasi-"lost" Slipknot song. That mythology certainly helped its value to fans, but the horrifying lyrics (about a girl who was buried alive in a box), gnashing soundscapes and impassioned vocal performance by Taylor (previewing the harrowing takes he'd deliver on Iowa) are why it's still revered today as an all-time fan favorite.
5. "Eeyore"
Originally buried at the end of "Scissors," after eight minutes of silence and muted chatter, lies the most ballistic song Slipknot ever wrote. The sub-three-minute "Eeyore" asks the question, "What if Slipknot went grindcore?" and then answers with the most resounding "Fuck yeah" imaginable. Loaded with machine-gun blast beats, haggard riffage, and howls from Taylor that sound plucked from an early Nineties Earache Records release, "Eeyore" is crushing even by Slipknot's own standards.
4. "Wait and Bleed"
It wasn't until Vol. 3 songs like "Duality" and "Before I Forget" that Slipknot truly conquered radio-rock terrain, but "Wait and Bleed" was a surefire sign that they had the chops to get there. Taylor's effortlessly catchy singing on this chorus is undeniable, but what's even more impressive is how Slipknot fit this neatly into the tracklist of an otherwise devastatingly heavy album. Sid Wilson's DJ scratches coat it with character, the almost tribal thrum of its rhythm shakes the listener to their core, and that final breakdown never gets old.
3. "Surfacing"
"Surfacing" taps into the sort of apoplectic, seeing-red rage-zone that Slipknot only ever returned to on Iowa tracks like "People = Shit" and "The Heretic Anthem." The unadulterated fury in Taylor's voice when he garbles, "Fuck you all!" at the beginning is only matched by the palpable, violent misanthropy of the refrain; "Fuck it all, fuck this world/Fuck everything that you stand for." Even for a band as lyrically pessimistic as Slipknot, "Surfacing" is a seriously negative track, and its instrumentation — that ear-scraping lick, the tumbling percussive fits, the abrasive DJ noises — drips with demonic vibes.
2. “Eyeless”
The first several songs on this album comprise one of the most god-tier runs in metal history, and "Eyeless" is very close to being the best of the bunch. Joey Jordison's drumming on this song is insane. Taylor's rising-falling vocals between spoken-word muttering and throat-shredding screaming has a diabolical effect. The breakcore skitters and needle-in-pupil pinches of guitar noise keep the mood on-edge during the transitional sections, and when that bouncy guitar-drums groove returns as a hellacious final breakdown…the only rational response is to smash whatever objects are in the vicinity.
1. “(sic)”
The first proper song on Slipknot's first album also happens to be the best. Every element of this track is quintessentially Slipknot; from the overwhelming percussive force and death-metal-tone-meets-nu-metal-groove guitars, to the electronic flourishes and uniquely heavy-catchy resonance of Taylor's vocals. The whole thing just feels like it's reaching the peak of a great metal song and then ascending even higher, as it just grows more and more exciting and intoxicatingly savage, concluding with one of the band's ultimate lines, "You can't kill me 'cause I'm already inside you." It might be Slipknot's single greatest song.
