On This Day 25/01/2015 Slipknot

On this day, 25 January 2015, American heavy metal band Slipknot played the Motorpoint Arena on their Prepare For Hell tour. Support was provided by Korn and KING 810.

Formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1995 by percussionist Shawn Crahan, drummer Joey Jordison and bassist Paul Gray. After several lineup changes in its early years, the band settled on nine members for more than a decade: Crahan, Jordison, Gray, Craig Jones, Mick Thomson, Corey Taylor, Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, and Jim Root. Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive style of music, and energetic and chaotic live shows.

Slipknot began touring North America in support of the album on October 25 at the second iteration of Knotfest. The tour dubbed the "Prepare for Hell" was co-headlined by Korn with King 810 as support.[103][104] The band also performed at 2015's Soundwave festival in Australia.

A bassist and drummer were brought in to replace Gray and Jordison respectively, Crahan designing a mask that would differentiate them from the band. The official video for "The Devil In I", featuring musicians wearing modified versions of the band's old masks—with the exception of Taylor, Wilson and Crahan who all wore new masks — was released on September 12. Fans speculated upon the identities of the drummer and bassist shown in the video but the band did not officially name them.

Taylor later said he was "upset" at the leak of the identity of the bassist, alleged to be Alessandro Venturella because of a unique tattoo on his hand, though he'd later clarify that he meant that in jest. Root told Guitar World the drummer's identity would not be released, and that the bassist and the drummer were not permanent members of the band.

On December 3, a former Slipknot road crew member posted a photograph of a touring band personnel list that confirmed bassist Alessandro Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg were members of the tour.