Clown has signed on to do a weekly column with Headbanger's Blog where he will show some of the photographs he's taken through the years and give a description of them.

"We couldn’t be more thrilled to launch our new weekly feature from Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan during our celebration of the 20th anniversary of “Headbangers Ball.” As you may know, in addition to beating on stuff for the Knot and playing drums for Dirty Little Rabbits, Crahan is also a serious photographer.

When he’s not writing or creating music, he’s frequently manipulating high-tech cameras, Polaroid film, scanners and Photoshop to create images that are both haunting and beautiful. Whether shooting portraits, candids, still-lifes, landscapes or something else entirely, Crahan imbues his shots with his own fears, frustrations and fascinations with sex, death and dreams. Click “more” to view the first picture in our weekly series from Crahan and read his fascinating, bizarre and sometimes disturbing commentary.


Image Copyright - M. Shawn Crahan
It’s basically a self-portrait of an Iowa mask that I wore. Self-portraits, for me, are one of the most fundamental and important aspects of experimenting with my own art. I’ve never really liked the way I look, so I’m always exploring myself. I’ve pretty much analyzed my entire body through photography as a way of cutting myself open and letting a lot things of my fears about myself out. It’s an experiment that I’m doing to get a little bit healthier about the way I feel about who I am.
myself.

This is one of my favorite self-portraits because it was in a very dark place in my life. I had this black mask made and I quite literally only wore it onstage twice for approximately 30 seconds. It just didn’t work. I don’t know if it was the latex or the other materials in it or just the way it felt, but it just wasn’t happening. I explored myself a lot with this particular mask during the Iowa cycle in my basement.

To me, this is basically a really good example of experimenting with oneself through a medium of choice — this choice being photography. So, this is me confronting my fears and it’s pretty heavy for me because it’s always in the mask, or it could be outside of the mask. They really are the same thing.

As far as the image goes, this is a digital photo. I manipulate cameras. I more or less deconstruct them. For example, there’s a film plane in the back of film cameras, and there are all kinds of mechanisms that keep the film down. Well, I’ll take those out so the film’s floating and nothing’s even. This particular picture was done with a lot of glass and layers of things in front. But it’s all liquid and colors. And then basically what I do with a lot of my art is I’ll pull it together after the photo’s done.

There’s always a problem with the depth of reality in photography, especially if you’re going to bring it out into a touchable reality because you want to use inks and paper and they make this vision on the screen look much different. So, I’ll pull these images into something like Photoshop and make the blacks black and the white white. And that’s how you get the reds to pop a little more. After you take the photos, you touch them up. It’s revision. And revision is something that’s well needed.

In fact, I’ve had this photo since 2001 and I’ve revised it a dozen times. I even messed with the brightness and contrast just a little bit yesterday before I sent it just because I’m on a new laptop and the picture has been sitting in a hard drive for a long time, and it’s got a mind of its own. When it showed up yesterday, it had some things to say.

Lionsgate has announced the upcoming soundtrack release to "Punisher: War Zone" from Marvel Comics' latest film adaptation of fictional vigilante and deadly antihero Frank Castle. The lethal motion picture soundtrack features a powerful collection of A-list rockers including the first new music in thre years from ROB ZOMBIE in addition to heart-pounding songs from rock icons such as SEETHER, SLAYER, SLIPKNOT and RISE AGAINST. The fifteen-track album attacks stores on November 25. The film opens nationwide on December 5.Lionsgate has announced the upcoming soundtrack release to "Punisher: War Zone" from Marvel Comics' latest film adaptation of fictional vigilante and deadly antihero Frank Castle. The lethal motion picture soundtrack features a powerful collection of A-list rockers including the first new music in thre years from ROB ZOMBIE in addition to heart-pounding songs from rock icons such as SEETHER, SLAYER, SLIPKNOT and RISE AGAINST. The fifteen-track album attacks stores on November 25. The film opens nationwide on December 5.

"Punisher: War Zone" track listing is as follows:

01. "War Zone" - ROB ZOMBIE
02. "Final Six" - SLAYER
03. "Psychosocial" - SLIPKNOT
04. "Historia Calamitatum" - RISE AGAINST
05. "Fallen" - SEETHER
06. "Bulletproof" - KERLI
07. [To Be Determined - Contest Winner]
08. "The Past Is Proof" - SENSES FAIL
09. "Butterfly Wings" - MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE
10. "Genesis" - JUSTICE
11. "Showdown" - PENDULUM
12. "Refuse" - HATEBREED
13. "Lunatic" - STATIC-X
14. "Days Of Revenge" - RAMALLAH
15. "The Punisher Main Title" - MICHAEL WANDMACHER

The band is preparing for their return to Australia and Clown has issued a quick update for everyone awaiting the shows,

"Get ready maggots! It's been 10 years and in that 10 years of sacrifice we're finally able to bring what is Slipknot to Australia - the real set, the real deal. Hydraulic drums and percussion rigs, massive set, explosions, lights and more. We're on fire and out for blood." - Clown

This will mark the first time in the band's history that they are bringing their full rig to Australia. That means the band is traveling with over 11 tons of equipment! That includes Joey's hydraulic riser that raises him 15 feet in the air and flips him onto his back, Clown and Chris's hydraulic risers, and of course lots and lots of pyro everywhere they can get away with it! Check out a couple of shots of the stage set up that Slipknot will be unleashing on Australia.

Corey Taylor talks for FUSE TV about song "Gehenna", new album "All Hope Is Gone" and his brand new mask:

Check out some videos, photos and setlist from the October 18 Loud Park 2008 show!

Setlist:

01. Intro
02. Surfacing
03. The Blister Exists
04. Get This
05. Before I Forget
06. Pulse Of The Maggots
07. Disasterpiece
08. Dead Memories
09. Psychosocial
10. The Heretic Anthem
11. Prosthetics
12. Spit It Out
13. Duality
14. Only One
15. People=Shit
16. (sic)

Photos:

I've just added some new pictures from Japan to our M-L Gallery!

Dead Memories:


Other videos from Loud Park:

>> (sic)
>> The Heretic Anthem
>> Before I Forget
>> The Blister Exists
>> Surfacing
>> 515 + People=Shit

Here is the Music Choice: Rocktober Slipknot Interview in it's full lenght:

Here are some excerpts from an interview Big Cheese Magazine conducted with Corey Taylor.

"I remember walking out on to the second stage here (West Palm Beach, FL) at Ozzfest in '99," Corey says, recalling Slipknot's first major tour: "People heard the noise and started running over the hills towards us. It was insane. When we first started playing there were probably about five hundred kids. By the end of it the entire field was packed, and people were just staring at us. They were like 'What is this?' And it was like that every show..."

And it's good to hear Taylor insist that the journey's not over yet. Every previous album (including 'IOWA' which caused shockwaves by going straight into the UK charts at number one, abover other new entries 'Is This It' by The Strokes and 'kingsize' by pop group Five) has been released amidst rumours that it might be the band's last, but Corey says Slipknot will definitely be making a fifth album.

Roadrunner Records will release the "Roadrunner United The Concert" DVD on December 9, 2008. The double-disc set hits shelves almost three years to the day after the now-legendary concert held at the Nokia Theater in Times Square in New York City on December 15, 2005. The show — which celebrated the release of the groundbreaking album "Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions" featuring 56 musicians from 44 different bands spanning the label's entire 25-year history — enjoyed a cult, "You had to be there!" status in the metal and hard rock scenes and now Roadrunner is giving the label's diehard followers a chance to witness the event for themselves.

"Roadrunner United The Concert" captures the festive intensity of the evening. A house band, featuring members of core Roadrunner acts such as SLIPKNOT, SEPULTURA and MACHINE HEAD, performed hits and classics culled from the entirety of the Roadrunner catalog. Some of the highlights included SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR vocalist Corey Taylor performing "Bother" with LIFE OF AGONY's Keith Caputo; former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE singer Jesse Leach dueting with current vocalist Howard Jones for KSE's "My Last Serenade"; an assortment of frontmen handling vocals for staple songs like SLIPKNOT's "(Sic)" and "Surfacing", MACHINE HEAD's "Davidian", KING DIAMOND's "Abigail", SEPULTURA's "Refuse/Resist", TYPE O NEGATIVE's "Black No. 1", SOULFLY's "Eye For an Eye" as well as four songs from the "Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions" album. The double disc set also includes a 75-minute documentary, complete with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, making it an even more intimate, fan-friendly experience!

A clip of Robb Flynn (MACHINE HEAD), Joey Jordison (SLIPKNOT), Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR), Dino Cazares (FEAR FACTORY) and Roy Mayorga (STONE SOUR, ex-SOULFLY) discussing playing the SLIPKNOT song "Surfacing" at the "Roadrunner United" concert can be viewed below.

SLIPKNOT - "Surfacing"

Robert Flynn - zpěv
Andreas Kisser - kytara
Dino Cazares - kytara
Adam Duce - baskytara
Roy Mayorga - bicí (v té době "Rata" ještě netušil, kde bude brzy drtit škopky)

SLIPKNOT - "Sic"

Corey Taylor - zpěv
Andreas Kisser - kytara
Dino Cazares / Scott Ian - kytara
Paul Gray - baskytara
Joey Jordison - bicí