Sulfur (song)

"Sulfur"
Single by Slipknot
from the album All Hope Is Gone
Released June 15, 2009
Format Compact Disc
Recorded February–June 2008 at Sound Farm in Jamaica, Iowa
Genre Heavy metal, Groove Metal, alternative metal[1]
Length 4:37
Label Roadrunner
Writer(s) Corey Taylor(Lyrics), Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Jim Root
Producer Dave Fortman
Slipknot singles chronology
"Dead Memories"
(2008)		 "Sulfur"
(2009)		 "Snuff"
(2009)
Alternative Cover
Cover for Sulfur (Chris Lord-Alge Mix)

"Sulfur" is a song by American metal band Slipknot, and is the fourth single from the band's fourth album All Hope Is Gone. The single was released on June 15, 2009,[2] a music video for the single was released on April 18, 2009. It was the last Slipknot music video to feature bassist Paul Gray, who was found dead on May 24, 2010.

The song, along with "Duality" and "Psychosocial", was available for DLC in Rock Band on December 8, 2009.

Contents

Music video

The music video for the song was filmed on March 9, 2009 (just two days before the end of their American tour) in the Los Angeles area.[3] It was co-directed by percussionist Shawn Crahan and P. R. Brown making it the third time he has worked with Slipknot on a music video.[3][4] On April 14, 2009 Slipknot released a thirty-second preview of the video through MTV and announced that the music video would be premiered on Headbangers Ball on April 18, 2009.[4]

The video depicts the nine members of Slipknot playing in groups of three as well as footage of each individual member submerged underwater. Percussionist and co-director Crahan explained that when he tries to write treatments for their music videos he always thinks, "What has Slipknot not done? What can we embark upon that will be fun and knowledge-enhancing instead of the same old song and dance?", saying that the members themselves are the treatment for this video.[5] This further shows that they always try to give their fans as much of themselves as they can even although they are tired of live performances, revealing that in order to change things up they shot the members performing in groups of three. The concept of the band members appearing individually underwater was modeled after a video installation entitled "Ascension" by video artist Bill Viola.[5] Crahan explained that the smell of sulfur is "something people either love or hate, and if you hate it, then it can be suffocating", so they incorporated water as a visual representation of this.[5] He also went on to reveal that the members felt more uncomfortable when shooting in an eleven-foot glass tank, explaining, "you had to go up this really weird ladder and the water was dirty and it was a five-foot by five-foot tank and it looked like when you stepped into it you were gonna hit your head on the frame that holds the glass and it would just rip your nose off", but he went on to say that it was his favorite video so far "because it involved that fear."[5] Chris Fehn expressed some anxiety about the jump and Taylor was at one point "impaled" by one of Craig Jones' spikes.

Track listing

US CD Single

"Sulfur" - 4:37

Sulfur (Chris Lord-Alge Mix)

  1. "Sulfur (Chris Lord-Alge Mix)" - 4:37[6]

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Rate Your Music
  2. ^ "It's creepy, dark and beautiful!". Kerrang!: pp. 6–7. 2009-04-25. 
  3. ^ a b "Slipknot films 'Sulfur' video". Blabbermouth.net. 2009-03-23. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=116713. Retrieved 2009-04-11. 
  4. ^ a b "Video Preview: Get a Whiff of Slipknot’s ‘Sulfur'". MTV. 2009-04-14. http://headbangersblog.mtv.com/2009/04/14/video-preview-get-a-whiff-of-slipknots-sulfur/. Retrieved 2009-04-15. 
  5. ^ a b c d "Video Premiere: Slipknot’s ‘Sulfur’". MTV. 2009-04-17. http://headbangersblog.mtv.com/2009/04/17/video-premiere-slipknots-sulfur/. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
  6. ^ Sulfur iTunes