Slipknot 2004

Did you ever open a garbage can on a hot summer day only to be greeted by the offensive stench of a larva of freshly hatched maggots? While this image is enough to make your skin crawl and your nostrils flare, this summer will most definitely bring a new host of maggots to a mosh pit near you!

Slipknot is back and better than ever as each day brings us ever closer the release of their third album and several summer tours to get their army of maggots back into battle. I was contacted by one of the maggot leaders from their snow covered base in Iowa. He was simply called # 3 (aka Chris Fehn). We discussed Slipknot’s plans for world domination in 2004.

I often wondered what was behind the name Slipknot in the first place and since this year is really a rebirth for them as a band, I wanted to know where the idea for the now infamous moniker came from. “Basically, Slipknot was just a song title that we had at the beginning. And we were looking for a name and we just stuck with that. As far as any real significance, it’s definitely not the stupid noose thing. I don’t have a glorified answer for you about what it actually means.”

Decapitado

Most bands worry about making music to appease and please the masses. Not so with Decapitado. This Milwaukee trio is focusing on originality in an effort to maintain their sanity and produce high quality art. These guys are not newcomers to the music scene by any stretch. Each is currently in at least one other band outside Decapitado and each has been in several others before this as well. Bands like Fuck Face, Custom Grand, Boy Dirt Car, and Die Kruezen to mention a few.

Dan Kubinski (vocals/bass), Andy Keels (guitar) and Charles A. Mayer (drums) are Decapitado. Starting at the top, Andy fills us in about the band name. “The word decapitado appears in a newspaper clipping in the movie “Curdled.” I thought it was such a cool word. My wife said it would be a great band name. I was in three bands at that time, and this one fit the name best. The name symbolizes the world today; a lurching, twitching body, lumbering forward, unable to hear or think or see. It stands for the way too many of us live our lives.”

Evanescence

As the constrictive walls between orchestrated classical music and modern metal have been hazily blurring, few have stepped through the sea of fog to challenge the listeners yearning ear. In dictionary terms, Evanescence is the act or state of vanishing away; the disappearance of vapor(s), of a dream, or of earthly plants or hopes. The solid reality, however, is a group concluding their second world tour in support of their quadruple-platinum album “Fallen”.

Frontwoman Amy Lee spoke with Maximum Ink from a bar in Tokyo about the recent lineup change, their worldwide notoriety, and Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Drowining Pool

The void that Dave Williams left behind when he died of heart complications two summers ago expanded beyond the borders of his band and shook the entire rock industry.

His band mates made the brave decision to continue the dream that Williams helped create. They kept their name and their arsenal of material, and began the search for a new singer. Fate ran its course, and the band unanimously chose Jason “Gong” Jones, a musician who had been working in the crowded LA scene.