1998 Demo

1998 Demo
General Infomation
Artist	Slipknot
Recorded	September – November 1997
Genre	Nu Metal
Length	13:53
Label	Independent
Producer	Slipknot
Mixer	Joey Jordison • Sean McMahon • Kevin Miles
Slipknot Chronology
← Previous	Annymous Live Show
Next →	Slipknot

The 1998 Demo, also known as the Roadrunner Demo, is a five-track demo CD sent by Slipknot to Roadrunner Records.

Background

The exact circumstances of this demo are unclear. The first official appearance of songs from this demo, namely "Interloper" and "Despise", was on the European digipak edition of Slipknot, released on June 29th, 1999. Here, the demos were said to be from 1998. "Snap" had its first official release on the Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack in 2003, where it was titled "Snap ('97 Demo)" and said to be "taken from a pre-Roadrunner 1997 demo". Finally, all four demos were included on the 10th anniversary edition of Slipknot, where they're said to be "taken from Slipknot's 1997 demo".

Despite this, and the CD itself also showing the year "1997", it's commonly believed that all tracks, except for "Spit It Out", were recorded in 1998. This is most likely untrue. "Spit It Out" was recorded in 1997 at SR Audio in Des Moines, Iowa and mixed by Joey Jordison and Sean McMahon. The other tracks were mixed by Jordison and Kevin Miles, the latter works at Junior's Motel in Otho, Iowa. As such, it's likely that those tracks were also recorded in Otho, but the exact date is unclear. As Corey Taylor sings on all demos, it must've been sometime between September and November, 1997.

"Spit It Out" was included with little changes in the main tracklist of the band's debut album and has been a staple of the band's live set ever since. "Interloper" and "Despise" were reworked into "Diluted" and "Purity", respectively. "Wait and Bleed" is the only song off of the demo that can only be found on the 10th anniversary edition of Slipknot. Some of the songs can also be found on various promotional releases.

Track Listing

All tracks are written by Shawn Crahan, Paul Gray, Joey Jordison & Corey Taylor, except where noted.

1998 Demo — Standard Edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Spit It Out"	Gray • Jordison • Crahan	2:33
2.	"Wait and Bleed"	Jordison • Taylor	2:33
3.	"Snap"		2:52
4.	"Interloper"		2:17
5.	"Despise"		3:38
Total length:			13:53

Personnel

• Corey Taylor – vocals
• Mick Thomson – guitars
• Josh Brainard – guitars
• Paul Gray – bass
• Joey Jordison – drums
• Shawn Crahan – custom percussion, backing vocals
• Greg Welts – custom percussion, backing vocals
• Sid Wilson – turntables
• Craig Jones – samples, media