Track 1 on Iowa, Slipknot’s 2nd album. “(515),” is named after an area code in Iowa, Slipknot’s home state and the name of this album. 515 is also the sum of 9 consecutive prime numbers (41 + 43 + 47 + 53 + 59 + 61 + 67 + 71 + 73), with Slipknot famously containing 9 members.

While they were recording Iowa, Sid’s grandfather died and Ross Robinson decided to use Sid’s grief and anger as part of the recording process. If you listen carefully you can hear sobs interspersed with the reversed screams of the word “Death.”

According to Shawn Crahan:

He was crying so much that he just kept getting more and more out of time. The takes ended up as the album’s harrowing intro track.

Yeah, that screaming and crying and breaking down that you hear at the beginning of the album, that’s me. Obviously, it was edited, things were done to it, reversed, pushed around in areas, to make it what it was but we if we actually played just the raw recording of it, I don’t think many people would be able to stomach it. It was pretty brutal, but that’s all I’ve ever known how to do, express myself through music and art. I could get it out without just wanting to destroy everything. I didn’t know whether it was going to be used or not, that didn’t even matter. The intention wasn’t for it to be used on the album; it was just so that I could get it out of my system. Everyone in the studio was balling with me, and I just let it rip.

My grandfather got really sick and it was right at the end of the recording cycle, there were only like 2 or 3 days left so I was planning to get my parts done quick and then fly out immediately to see him, he was in the hospital. It got up to the last day in the studio and he passed away. I didn’t make it out there, needless to say. I went into the studio, you can also hear some of this in our ‘People=S–t’ song, there’s a bunch of us doing gang vocals, which I did after this next part, but I went into the studio and was like ‘Turn it on, turn this s–t on and record.’ There wasn’t any music or anything, I just went in and let it all go.
- Sid Wilson