Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.

For other uses of "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.", see Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. (disambiguation).

Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.
General Infomation
Artist	Slipknot
Release Date	October 31st, 1996
Recorded	December 1995 – March 1996
Studio	SR Audio, Des Moines, Iowa
Genre	Nu Metal Funk Metal Experimental Rock
Length	51:01
Label	Pale One Records
Producer	Slipknot • Sean McMahon
Slipknot Chronology
← Previous	1995 Demo
Next →	Producer/Engineer Demo

Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. is the independent debut album by American heavy metal band Slipknot. It was released on October 31, 1996 through the band's own Pale One Records (cat. no. 000-2) and self-distributed at shows and local CD shops. In June 1997, -ismist Recordings took over distribution of the remaining 386 copies, assigning them the catalogue number -ism CD 0032.

A re-recorded version by Anders Colsefni in collaboration with the New Zealand band Kaosis was released by the latter on March 15th, 2024. However, later in the day Colsefni stated that the remake was unfinished and was released without his consent.

Background

In December 1995, Slipknot entered the SR Audio recording studio in Des Moines, IA to begin tracking their debut album, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.. The process was quite complicated, as Shawn had to pay for the studio time out of his own pocket, totaling around $40,000, and the departure of Donnie Steele just before the release of the album (An incident that would be repeated with bandmate Josh Brainard during the sessions for Slipknot).

Containing many influences including Funk, Jazz, and Disco, the band began distributing the record themselves to fans, radio stations and record labels. Though the majority of its songs appeared reworked later on, the original pressing was limited to only 1,000 copies and since the bands rise to predominance in 1999, it has been a sough-after rarity for Slipknot fans.

Slipknot's formation

The original Slipknot group was of Anders, Shawn, and Paul, they had the idea of making a group and played around with the idea. They even wrote some songs as early as 1993. However Shawn became busy and that band fell through. Fortunately, the idea was revived in 1995 by Shawn and Anders and thus Slipknot was officially formed in the September of 1995.

Slipknot's first show

Slipknot performed their first show at a club thought to be named "The Love Shack". The performance was without masks and the band went under the name "Meld". The show took place on November 5th, 1995, around a month after Josh joined the band. This was the only show with Donnie Steele who soon left after conflicting interests.

Practicing

At first the group practiced in Anders's Basement, the group used carpet samples and scraps from the nearby Pet Grooming Center as soundproofing, according to Mick. "The animals that were there had bladder problems, because the carpet smelled like animal piss […] Thereby making out practice space smell the same way." However the basement was far too small and not the full group could fit in the main area, resulting in Craig having to set up his equipment in the Laundry Room.

Percussion methods

When the band was started, Shawn was the lead drummer. However, he no longer wanted to play drums and Joey was brought into the band to take over the role of main drummer. Joey plays the main set and as a result is the main drummer who sits as the back and holds the band together. Shawn is the "Total Power Drummer" and is all aggression. Slipknot have now acquired electric drums to work with samples and the music to provide a new element to the music. The third drummer is Chris, previously Anders and Cuddles, they take care of the tribal sound. Slipknot wanted three different perspectives to provide an "Auditory Overkill".

When Shawn started the band he decided that they would need 3 drummers to give a powerful, tribal sound. Shawn, being into "power" stiff also wanted to basics of all instruments, believed to be by him, the drums. he wanted a drummer to the left and right with one at the back controlling it all, Creating a wall of power, a fist layer.

Slipknot's aims

In 1995 there were 2 rules. Slipknot had to play what they wanted to play and it didn't matter what they played. The cost of seeing them play should also never matter. The second rule was that there needed to be 3 drummers. The members came from several different bands (Pre-Slipknot bands) and each had a common view on the way that everything was going in the town of Des Moines. They where sick of it. There was no music scene, and it was hard to get band's CD's, etc. As a result, Slipknot was born with one mission, this mission being the "clean up the music industry". The bands aims remain to be to create a sound the world has never heard, a vision no one has ever seen, this can be clearly seen by the hype to Slipknot's second album. They sensed the people that were ready for a show, rather than some guys just playing music.

Battle of the Bands

In this competition, Slipknot performed against several bands including that of Stone Sour, Corey's band at the time. Slipknot was psyched and extremely competitive, although Stone Sour was good, Slipknot won the competition. It was one of the band's highlights.

Rarity

MFKR is very rare, as only 1,000 copies were made, although only 999 were ever sold as one came broken from the factory. As of 2003, no band member owns a copy. Due to the band's popularity, several bootlegged copies of MFKR have been sold online. Formats include CD, MP3, and Vinyl.

Funk/Disco?

Within the MFKR album there are several instances of funk and disco, in particular the song "Do Nothing/Bitchslap". Although heavy goes into a funk form half way through, along with disco and jazz instances; it is a very strange yet original song. The funk element came from several influences, however it, along with the rap and disco, was put in generally to spice the songs and put Slipknot a foot further than other bands. The songs are based around ground thumping riffs and all out aggressive music that keeps to the rule of giving the world something they have never seen.

Masks

The band didn't start wearing masks, until one day, the idea was originally brought up when Shawn brought in a mask and fucked around with it. It was fun, and the idea caught on. Soon, other members of the band were wearing masks. They pivoted around the idea of how a mask can make you a different person. It was a chance the group was willing to take. One thing the masks aren't is something to get people into Slipknot, a point continuously repeated by the band. The group was constantly being degraded for trying something different, and as a result, the masks were used to conceal identities and portray the band as an anonymous entity. "Its not about our names or faces, its about the music." stated Slipknot.

Josh: "One of the first questions they asked me was whether I was willing to wear a mask or not. My favorite band being Kiss, of course, I said 'Fuck Yeah!' . We actually had a bunch of different masks around our rehearsal place, and we would often trade and wear different masks. I think mine started when I wore a Ski Mask stocking cap to practice one night. We were playing I just pulled it down."

The meaning of Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.

It represents the basic cycle of life. Reproduce, feeding to survive, and kill to overcome the enemy and stay alive, then the cycle repeats itself.

Track Listing

All tracks are written by Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Shawn Crahan, Anders Colsefni, Donnie Steele & Josh Brainard except where noted.

Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. — Standard Edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Slipknot"		6:55
2.	"Gently"	Crahan • Colsefni	5:16
3.	"Do Nothing/Bitchslap"		4:20
4.	"Only One"		2:33
5.	"Tattered & Torn"		2:35
6.	"Confessions"		5:05
7.	"Some Feel"		3:36
8.	"Killers Are Quiet" (+Hidden track Dogfish Rising)		20:42
Total length:			51:01

Mate, Kiil, Feed, Repeat — Standard Edition
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Slipknot"	6:55
2.	"Gently"	5:16
3.	"Do Nothing/Bitchslap"	4:20
4.	"Only One"	2:33
5.	"Tattered & Torn"	2:35
6.	"Confessions"	5:05
7.	"Vizqueen"
8.	"Part of Me"	2:47
9.	"Some Feel"	3:36
10.	"Rites and Rage"
11.	"Fur"	2:47
12.	"Killers Are Quiet" (+Hidden track Dogfish Rising)	20:42

Cut Tracks

• "Part of Me"
• "Fur"
• "Rites and Rage"
• "Vizqueen"
• "Wave Like the Pope"

Personnel

Slipknot Anders Colsefni – vocals, custom percussion, samples Shawn Crahan – custom percussion, backing vocals, samples Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals Joey Jordison – drums, guitar on "Dogfish Rising" Josh Brainard – guitars, backing vocals, auxiliary percussion, bass on "Dogfish Rising", keyboard on "Do Nothing/Bitchslap" Donnie Steele – guitars Mick Thomson – guitars (credited but did not perform on album) Craig Jones – samples (credited but did not perform on album)

Additional Personnel Frank Plumley – vocals on "Dogfish Rising" Corn Wallace – drawings Sean McMahon – producer, engineering, mixing, mastering, vocals on "Dogfish Rising" Mike Lawyer – mastering Stefan Seskis – photography

Gallery

• CD Scans

Tour

• 1996 live performances

Trivia

• The inside notes says: "Guitar leads on tracks 1, 6, & 10, as well as other rhythm guitar tracks preformed by Donnie Steele." The missing track is explained by Anders, saying; - "There was another song that we cut from the line-up called "Part of Me", and I think that thank-you panel had been made up before we cut it."^{[citation needed]}
• The CD's bar code "742617000027", is also the name of the intro to the song "(Sic)". Both "742617000027" and "(Sic)" appear on the self titled album.
• Most of the songs on MFKR are based on the RPG role-playing game Rage.
• On the back of the MFKR album it says "Copyright 1996 Pale One Music". The "Pale Ones" refer to a particular creature from the "Vampire Masquerade" and "Werewolf Apocalypse" RPGs. They felt, they had to put something there (on the back), so they decided to use something that had a lot to do with Shawn and Anders, creating the band, "Pale One Music" was not a real record label.
• The cover shows a metal cage made by Shawn Crahan, with Joey Jordison sitting inside of it (naked). This cage was called "Patiently Awaiting the Jigsaw Flesh", and was also known as the "Death Cage". It was part of the stage show during the release party for Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., and various willing "victims" sat inside of it while the band played.
• Joey came up with the title of the album.
• The original version of the album had 12 tracks instead of 8.
• The album had a working name of "Mate, Kill, Feed, Repeat" as seen in the 12 track promo copy.
• Shawn's clown mask is featured on the CD artwork.

External Links

• MFKR1.com
• MateFeedKillRepeat.com

Release History

Region	Date	Format(s)	Edition	Label(s)
United States	October 31st, 1996	CD	Limited	Pale One Records