"Godfather of Nu-Metal" ROSS ROBINSON picks favorite SLIPKNOT songs | Revolver

"Godfather of Nu-Metal" ROSS ROBINSON picks favorite SLIPKNOT songs

"What we captured was so fucking over the top"
slipknot 2001 OZZFEST GETTY, Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
photograph by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

People call Ross Robinson the "Godfather of Nu-Metal," and rightly so. While he's recorded with everyone from the Cure to Touché Amoré, he's most famous for producing Korn's groundbreaking first two albums (Korn and Life Is Peachy), Sepultura's tribal nu-metal fusion Roots, and the first two LPs by a little band called Slipknot. Robinson is the guy who captured the infernal anger heard on Slipknot's 1999 self-titled and their even more scorching 2001 follow-up, Iowa, and while the Nine have recorded several great albums since then without Robinson's magic touch, the Godfather still considers his work with the band to be their best yet.

During a recent conversation with Revolver, we asked Robinson to pick his favorite Slipknot songs, and he ended up going with two old-school ragers from the band's first full-length LP.

"Probably either 'Eyeless' or 'Scissors,'" Robinson said. "[Because of their] uniqueness, and just what we captured was so fucking over the top.

"I remember handing [Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer] the CD and saying, 'Dude, be careful when you press play. This is ruthless. Don't get scared.' I was just like, 'This is ruthless.' He never mentioned it after that. I don't know what his reaction was.

"But for me in that moment, especially with those two songs, it was like, 'Mmm, this is great.' Because [Korn] were already onto 'Got the Life,' and they were the biggest band in the world at the time, doing a lot of awesome songs and hits and things. But it wasn't ruthless."

Listen to those two "ruthless" Slipknot songs below.