Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.

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Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. is a demo album by American metal band Slipknot. Released on October 31, 1996, the album was limited to production of 1000 copies. The band originally self-distributed copies but went on to release remaining units through -ismist Recordings in 1997. Due to its limited release the album has become much sought by fans since Slipknot's rise in popularity.

The band considers Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. to be a demo and have evolved and released the majority of the songs on future releases. It was recorded in Des Moines, Iowa, over a period of seven months. The music of the album contains many influences including funk, jazz, and disco which weren't as apparent in later material. Many of the lyrics and the album's title are derived from the game Werewolf: The Apocalypse. The songs contain an "emphasis on non-traditional songwriting" and melodic themes more than subsequent releases.[1]

Recording and production

In late 1995 Slipknot and producer Sean McMahon entered SR Audio, a studio in the bands home town of Des Moines, Iowa to work on a demo-album.[2] Retrospectively McMahon said that the band was "driven" because they spent the majority of their time in the studio for the seven months it took to produce the album.[2] Slipknot self-financed the production, which came to an estimated $40,000.[2] The band expressed how much of a learning process this time was with it being the first time they had recorded their music, specifically the additional percussion elements were challenging to capture.[3] The band were aiming for a tribal sound but encountered problems including minuscule timing errors and during this period they refined their percussive sound, they experimented with erecting walls to isolate the drums and re-arranging parts.[3] In February 1996 during the mixing process, guitarist Donnie Steele decided to leave the band for religious reasons, as a result Craig Jones joined the band to fill the spot.[4] However the band realized that they were incorporating too many samples on their recordings and could not produce these sounds live. In order to solve this problem Jones moved to full time sampler and Mick Thomson joined as a guitarist.[5] Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. was released on October 31 1996 with a release party at The Safari, a local club were the band played a lot of their earliest gigs.[6]

Musical and lyrical themes

The musical style of Slipknot is constantly contested due to the genres their music covers, however Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. is the band's most experimental release and is significantly different from the heavy style the band became known for.[7] One of the bands initial aims was to mix any genres of music to achieve their own style; an early incarnation of the band was called "Meld" based upon this.[7] However there are still familiarities in the sound of which Slipknot became known for. Tracks such as "Slipknot", "Some Feel" and "Only One" feature a dominantly Heavy metal influence, specifically in that of the guitars.[8] Tracks such as "Tattered & Torn", "Killers Are Quiet" and "Gently" also include the slow, cerebral angst build up style that the band also retained in some of their more recent work.[8] The album implements elements of Jazz and Funk, although "Confessions" is the only track on the album dominantly led by these styles.[8] "Do Nothing/Bitch Slap" is the album's most complex song, combining both of these dominant styles as well as implementing areas of Disco.[8] The album title and the majority of the lyrics are references to the role-playing game Werewolf: The Apocalypse.[9] Vocalist Anders Colsefini and percussionist Shawn Crahan shared a mutual interest in the game which was a large influence on the band, Colsefini said "The attraction was being able to play a different person" declaring that this was the essence of Slipknot.[9]

Legacy

The original pressing of the album was limited to 1000 copies and since the band's rise to fame in 1999 it has been a sought after rarity for Slipknot fans.[10] The band began distributing the album themselves, handing them out to fans, radio stations, and record labels.[10] On June 13 1997, -ismist Recordings took over the distribution of the remaining copies of the album.[10] These original pressings have since grown in value; in 2007 a copy reportedly sold for $760.00 on the internet auction site eBay.[11] Due to the large amount of interest in the album and the low numbers of originals there have been many bootlegged versions of the album sold including CD, MP3 and even vinyl.[12]

There is often deliberation whether Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. is a demo-album or actually the bands debut album. The band strictly consider it to be a demo-album due to its low production numbers, the intent with which they created the album and the fact that they reworked the majority of the songs to appear on later albums.[13] An example of this is evidenced by the band's third studio album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), which by title implies that it is their third album despite actually being the fourth record released by the band.

Track listing

All songs credited to Slipknot.

  1. "Slipknot" – 6:55
  2. "Gently" – 5:16
  3. "Do Nothing/Bitch Slap" – 4:19
  4. "Only One" – 2:33
  5. "Tattered & Torn" – 2:35
  6. "Confessions" – 5:05
  7. "Some Feel" – 3:36
  8. "Killers Are Quiet" – 20:42

Personnel

References

  • Arnopp, Jason (2001), Slipknot: Inside the Sickness, Behind the Masks, Ebury, ISBN 0091879337
  • McIver, Joel (2003), Slipknot: Unmasked (again), Omnibus, ISBN 0711997640

Notes

  1. ^ Jason Birchmeier. "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  2. ^ a b c Arnopp 2001, p. 45-47
  3. ^ a b Arnopp 2001, p. 48-49
  4. ^ Arnopp 2001, p. 50-51
  5. ^ Arnopp 2001, p. 57
  6. ^ Arnopp 2001, p. 62
  7. ^ a b Mciver 2003, p. 16-17
  8. ^ a b c d Mciver 2003, p. 23-25
  9. ^ a b Mciver 2003, p. 15-16
  10. ^ a b c Crampton, Mark (2001), Barcode Killers: The Slipknot Story in Words and Pictures, Chrome Dreams, p. 20-26, ISBN 1842401262
  11. ^ "Slipknot: Yet Another 'Ultra-Rare' Copy Of 'Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat' Being Auctioned". Blabbermouth.net. 2007-03-30. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  12. ^ "MFKR Real or Fake?". Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  13. ^ "The Metal Observer MFKR review". Retrieved 2008-06-29.
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