Slipknot

Slipknot is the debut studio album by American metal band Slipknot. It was released on 29 June 1999 through Roadrunner Records, following a demo containing a few of the songs which had been released in 1998, and was reissued in December 1999 with a slightly altered track listing and mastering as the result of a lawsuit. It was the first release by the band to be produced by Ross Robinson, who sought to refine Slipknot's sound rather than alter the group's musical direction.
The album spans several genres, but is generally noted for its extensive percussion and overall heavy sound. It was well received by fans and critics alike and was responsible for bringing Slipknot a large increase in popularity. The album peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200, and has gone on to become certified double platinum in the United States, making it the band's best selling album. It was voted the best debut album of the last 25 years by readers of Metal Hammer magazine.
Slipknot was well-received by critics and fans; following its release the band gained popularity beyond their own expectations. Reviewing for Allmusic, Rick Anderson awarded the album four out of five stars calling it "an auspicious debut" and proclaimed, "You thought Limp Bizkit was hard? They're the Osmonds. These guys are something else entirely. And it's pretty impressive."  The album's aggression and heavy sound was widely praised; Rolling Stone stated Slipknot is "metal with a capital m", Kerrang! added "raw and wholly uncompromising, each track delivered a powerful blow to the senses" and in 2001, Q included the album in their list of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time". CMJ ranked the album as the twelfth highest "Editorial Pick" for 1999. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery.
A single from the album, "Wait and Bleed", was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards, but lost to Deftones' "Elite". The song was also named the 36th greatest metal song of all time, by VH1. The release of the album and the touring which followed, greatly increased the band's popularity. The album became the "biggest selling extreme metal album at the time." It was ranked by American Soundscan as the fastest-selling metal debut in Soundscan's history. On May 2, 2000, the album was certified platinum in the United States, a first for any album released by Roadrunner Records. In the United States, it has sold over 2,000,000 copies; on February 5, 2005, the RIAA certified it Double Platinum. In Canada, the Canadian Recording Industry Association certified the album as Platinum on October 10, 2000. The British Phonographic Industry has certified the album as Platinum on October 17, 2008 in the UK
After the release of the album, the band was accused of copyright infringement regarding the concept of the song "Purity". Corey Taylor, during a Q&A, claimed that the song's lyrics had been written five years prior to the song's release and that only the song's name had been inspired by the Purity Knight story, which was claimed by the authoring website as being a fictional. Taylor, to his defense, said the song's inspiration came from films such as Boxing Helena and The Collector, and not the story itself. Slipknot, in an effort to prevent the entire album from being pulled, removed "Purity" and its short sample-filled prelude "Frail Limb Nursery" from the album until the case could be settled. As a result, the band released slightly remastered standard and digipak versions of the album in December 1999, replacing both tracks with "Me Inside". The band later won their case, and was subsequently able to still play the song during live performances.