10 Insane Stories Behind Classic Albums

Not too many heavy metal records released in the '00s can really hold a candle to Slipknot's Iowa. Instead of the usual sophomore album where everything is much more watered down, these misfits from (where else?) Iowa turned everything up to a thousand, with every track hitting more harshly than the last. Though a lot of that anger came from within, it helps when you have a producer as nuts as Ross Robinson.

After working with them on their self-titled debut, Ross was not willing to accept anything less than heavy for the follow up, going so far as to take a custom-made guitar Jim Root had and dropkick it out of his hands. Putting them through the ringer in more ways than one, Robinson would do anything he could to make sure he got the best performance out of them, going so far as to hurl potted plants at them while they were playing and Corey Taylor even stripping naked and cutting himself to perform the title track.

Talking about it now, Ross even remembers taking a lit candle and throwing it against the wall, with hot wax smearing all over Clown's face before eventually getting the take that they settled on for one of the songs. For as much as their live show might feel like hell at times, not even the studio feels like a safe environment for these 9.