RIP Paul Gray (Slipknot) 1972-2010

Now many may find it odd that I’m writing a piece to honor a bassist from a metal band, but well, i’m sure a number of us have been through that youthful angsty phase where we’ve chipped away at our eardrums with our Sony Discman and standard issue earphones blasting at incomprehensible levels. I had that couple of years where Rage Against the Machine (bless you, Tom Morello), Metallica, Testament, Benediction, White Zombie and finally Slipknot (which was one of the last metal bands i listened to), were regular fixtures on my playlist.

Like any good band, a rhythm section is always the grounding factor of the band. If your drum and bass don’t lock well enough, there really is nothing for guitars and vocals to hover above, and create the full soundscape that good bands are able to create. One thing that I eventually learnt about these bands is that much respect goes out to bassists and drummers who can get their act together in a metal-type context, ‘cos in a genre of music that intense, and occasionally, complex, it really isn’t an easy thing to do. And one band that had that down was Slipknot.

Paul Gray was one of the members of Slipknot who was not an Iowa native, he was from LA I think. Good thing he was still around when Slipknot’s 2008 album ‘All Hope is Gone’ hit number 1 on the Billboard 200, as i understand it was the first Slipknot album to ever do so. For Singaporeans, the last time Slipknot was here was 2005 I believe, for their Subliminal Verses tour.

Now i won’t go to the extreme fanboy extent of saying that he was the world’s number 1 bassist, and that noone else comes equal, cos those are really hard accolades to come by. But I will say that Paul Gray and Slipknot were pioneers in a new wave of metal to hit the airwaves, and definitely an act worth catching, and tribute-worthy. So instead of linking a sappy tribute video, maybe u could catch this vid i linked, and get yourself a DVD to learn what this self-taught, left-handed and mean-ass bassist will leave behind.