Rock music is a brutal business, and it's all about cycles - that's the harsh reality of it -- bands come and go, but they rarely hang around long enough to stay relevant. So, how is all this relevant to our next entry, you may ask? Well, here's what happened next...
After the fall of grunge in the mid '90s, the hard rock and metal scene entered a phase of confusion, and it became almost clueless as to which direction it wanted to go next. But then, with their self titled debut album in 1999, came Slipknot, and the metal landscape changed forever. The emergence of Slipknot completely altered everything. You couldn't take your eyes off them, and their heavy, speedy, dark metal fascinated even the classic rock purists. This was a band that redefined heavy metal, and became one of the key game-changers in what seemed like an instant. And at the centre of that excitement was the hugely talented Corey Taylor, who comes next in at #n61.
Slipknot have grown into one of metal's biggest acts, which is staggering considering the extremity of the band. The Iowa natives have been relentless over the course of their career, putting on one of the most entertaining and dangerous live performances you can see. Corey Taylor's visceral barks and clean sung hooks counter-play to give Slipknot depth in addition to him being an absolute madman onstage. He's also proven to be a great rock singer as frontman of the slightly toned down, Stone Sour.
It's funny how some of the most hated bands in this group are the ones that changed the game. I see a lot of resentment for Guns N' Roses, and Nirvana too, and I don't doubt for a second that we'll also get plenty of negativity towards Taylor and Slipknot. But, the real point is this: You don't have to like something to appreciate its importance. Slipknot won't be everyone's cup of tea, but they were the band that evolved the modern metal landscape like no other, and, in Taylor, they possessed one of the most dynamic, entertaining, and scary frontmen to ever grace a stage.
Widely respected by fans, peers and critics, Corey Taylor is regarded as one of the most influential people in heavy metal of the 21st century. He was ranked third on Metal Hammer's list of '50 Greatest Nu Metal Frontmen', and came in at No.12 on Kerrang!'s list of '100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers'. Heck, even the purists, Classic Rock Magazine, put him on their list of '100 Most Influential Rock Stars,' which just shows you the kind of respect this frontman commands in all walks of the rock and metal community.
So, before you judge him, or scribble your negative comments below, just take a good look at what Corey Taylor has done for modern metal music, and you might just begin to understand why he's so treasured. Heavy metal bands from the '80s were churning out the same old material as they were in the previous decade (but just nowhere near as good), and so the genre desperately needed something fresh -- something to take it forward into an exciting new direction. Corey Taylor is a man who continued the heavy metal legacy, and helped make it relevant again. He deserves a lot of credit for that, surely?
As Douglas Hyde once said: Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. This could not be more true of Corey Taylor.
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