Crowz

Crowz is a word coined by Joey Jordison as an inside joke in October 1995. The band later wrote it on various demos and papers and even included it in "Dogfish Rising" on Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. and in live shows. Among Slipknot fans, "Crowz" is somewhat infamous and has been used in reference to a variety of topics.

Crowz – The Album, the Era

After the release of Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. in October 1996, Slipknot continued writing and recording new songs, as well as re-recording existing ones. They compiled these songs on a number of demos, namely Excerpts From Current Project, the Battle of the Bands Demo, the Producer/Engineer Demo and the 1997 Demo. These recording sessions ultimately resulted in the creation of SlipKnot, more commonly known as the Gold Disc. SlipKnot was mixed in March 1997 at SR Audio and was scheduled for release as the band's sophomore album in August 1997.

However, this did not come to fruition, as the band decided they were in need of a more accessible voice on lead vocals. For that reason, Corey Taylor was brought in and replaced Anders Colsefni, who subsequently left the band in September 1997. Slipknot moved on to re-record the Gold Disc with Corey Taylor's vocals, of which four tracks leaked. It is believed by some that Slipknot's sophomore album was supposed to be called "Crowz", but no evidence for this exists. Corey Taylor mentioned "Crowz" in an interview years later, explaining how Slipknot took some of the songs on Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. and re-recorded them, and that he wrote new lyrics to those songs, saying "that was the unreleased Crowz album, basically, or whatever they were calling it". According to the ex-Stone Sour member Denny Harvey, Corey also drew cover art for the album and gifted it to Denny. Both the cover art and the Gold Disc itself remain unreleased to this day.

In recent years, "Crowz" has come to be used as an umbrella term to refer to the late 1996 to late 1997 era of Slipknot and the songs they produced at that time. Along with the aforementioned demos, the Silver Disc could also be said to be part of the "Crowz" era.

Crowz – The Compilation

In the early 2000s, interest in Slipknot's independent era piqued among fans and through websites like mfkr1.com, they quickly discovered the word "Crowz". However, the internet and its information wasn't as accessible back then as it is today, false information spread much faster among fans and over time, "Crowz" came to be attributed to a loose compilation of Slipknot songs. This compilation was comprised of the 1997 Demo and the aforementioned four tracks off of Corey's Gold Disc, which had both leaked in the early 2000s, as well as some live songs, various alternate versions of songs like "Spit It Out" and blatantly mistagged songs by other bands, such as the supposed Slipknot song "Hate". The two most commonly used covers for this compilation can be seen on the right. By the 2010s, most fans had become aware that this compilation has no merit and nowadays, it's generally not mentioned in the context of "Crowz" anymore. When Anders Colsefni returned to the scene by performing MFKR in its entirety in the 2020s, he also released a line of merch which uses the covers as a design.

Because Crowz is not a real compilation, there is no consistent tracklist. The following songs are usually said to be part of Crowz:

1. "Coleslaw"
2. "Interloper" (Anders Live)
3. "May 17" (Anders Live)
4. "Windows" (Anders Live)
5. "Carve"
6. "Prosthetics" (Corey)
7. "Me Inside" (Corey)
8. "Me Inside" (Anders)
9. "Only One"
10. "Gently"
11. "Interloper" (Apple of My Eyes Version)
12. "Wait and Bleed" (Early Version)
13. "Snap" (Early Version)
14. "Scissors" (Anders Live)

All of these songs were taken from various other releases:

• Tracks 1, 5 and 8 were taken from the 1997 Demo with Anders on vocals.
• Tracks 6, 7, 9 and 10 were taken from the 4-Track Demo with Corey on vocals.
• The live tracks were recorded at Hotel Fort, Des Moines, on December 31, 1996.
• Track 11 is the official demo version with a fan-edited intro.
• Tracks 12 and 13 are the official demo versions that appear on the 10th anniversary edition of Slipknot.

Sometimes, The Basement Sessions, songs produced by the band that preceded Slipknot in 1993, are also said to be part of Crowz.