LOS ANGELES — Twenty-six years ago, the Iowa metal band Slipknot arrived at the Malibu studio compound Indigo Ranch to make one of the gnarliest albums of the 1990s in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. “I remember going down the PCH, the Pacific Ocean sparkling, headed up Barrymore Drive into Solstice Canyon with our 2-ton truck of gear and thinking, ‘We’re so out of our element,’” said percussionist and founding member Clown (Shawn Crahan). “I remember it being polar opposites, being in an insanely beautiful place, making this festering thing.
” The self-titled debut that emerged in 1999 raised the bar for scabrous yet song-driven riffing, at a time when nü-metal fought teen pop atop the charts and on MTV’s “Total Request Live.” Making an immediate statement with its nine-piece lineup and grotesque masks hiding members’ identities, the band would go on to earn three No. 1 albums.
Rather than compromise its sound for rock hits, though, the band became a full-on subculture. The drum throne of Slipknot is a hotly debated seat in heavy music; a slot on Knotfest announces your prowess to the scene. Two years after its seventh LP, “The End, So Far,” the band is celebrating the anniversary of its self-titled debut album, whose corrosive imagery and experimentation still inform metal today.
The Times spoke with Clown and the band’s ferocious new addition, 33-year-old former Sepultura drummer Eloy Casagrande, about the impact of that first albu.