| "Snuff" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single bySlipknot | ||||
| from the albumAll Hope Is Gone | ||||
| A-side | "Snuff" (radio edit) | |||
| B-side | "Snuff" (album version) | |||
| Released | September 28, 2009 (2009-09-28) | |||
| Recorded | 2008 | |||
| Studio | Sound Farm (Jamaica, Iowa) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
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| Label | Roadrunner | |||
| Songwriter | Corey Taylor | |||
| Producers |
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| Slipknot singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Snuff" onYouTube | ||||
"Snuff" is a song by Americanheavy metal bandSlipknot.[2] Aballad,[3] the song was released on September 28, 2009, as the fifth and final single from their fourth studio album,All Hope Is Gone (2008).[3] It peaked at No. 2 onBillboard'sMainstream Rock chart, their highest chart placement to date, surpassing "Dead Memories".[4]
Roadrunner Records placed "Snuff" at number six for its greatest music videos of all time.[5] The song was also nominated forBest Single at theKerrang! Awards 2010,[6] but lost to "Liquid Confidence" byYou Me at Six.[7]
It is the final single released from the band with original bassistPaul Gray before his death eight months after its release and drummerJoey Jordison before his departure in 2013 and death in 2021. During recent solo acoustic shows, Corey Taylor has performed an acoustic version of "Snuff" as a tribute to Gray.
Joey Jordison is quoted saying: "Corey doesn't really write music for Slipknot – but, when he came over to hear the songsPaul[Gray, bassist] and I were working on forAll Hope Is Gone, he showed me this... I had him lay ascratch track down in the studio. Then I went in late at night, without telling him, and laid down some drums... When he heard it the next day, he started crying. It's Corey's masterpiece."[8]
Taylor said in 2021: "I get into arguments with fans all the time about this: everybody’s like, 'Oh, it’s just a leftover Stone Sour song.' No, I wrote that for Slipknot. I didn’t expect them to use it, to be honest, but I wrote it specifically for Slipknot, because it was regarding one of the heaviest times of my life." He also told Kerrang! in 2018 that the main reason the track ended up getting used was becausePaul Gray had strongly advocated for its inclusion on the album. He said: "If Paul hadn’t championed that song, I don’t think we would have recorded it. But he loved it and saw the potential with it and really wanted us to do it."[9]
Containing melodic singing, acoustic guitars and clean tones, "Snuff" is considered to be Slipknot's "softest" song.[9] A ballad, the song was written about vocalistCorey Taylor's divorce. The track explores themes such asheartbreak andself loathing.[10] According to him: "This is the slow one. It's another personal one. Again, not naming names, it's about someone who helped me through a lot and I thought she felt the same way that I did and then she really let me down. At the same time, it was good that she did, because it was that final push to me figuring out myself. The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory."[citation needed]
Taylor would recall in 2021: "It was one of the heaviest disappointments, one of the heaviest heartbreaks I had ever felt. It was one of those things where you knew you weren’t supposed to be together. There was just something there that felt so good and when it was ripped away from you, it just felt like there was a hole in your chest, and knowing that and having to discard those feelings was tough."[11]
It was announced on October 14, 2009 byRoadrunner Records that a music video with a high enough production quality to be considered ashort film was to be released for "Snuff",[12] which premiered on December 18, 2009 at 11:09 PMCST.[13] It was co-directed byShawn "Clown" Crahan andP. R. Brown, and featuresMalcolm McDowell andAshley Laurence ofHellraiser fame.[14] Corey Taylor is seen for the third time in a Slipknot video without his mask (the other two times being: "Dead Memories" and "Before I Forget") and is cross-dressed at the end of the short film.[15]
In 2023, Jared Linen ofLoudwire suggested Snuff could be "the saddest metal song of all time."[11] That same year, anAI-generation version of the song featuring lateLinkin Park vocalistChester Bennington was released. Corey Taylor criticized the version, saying: "It’s cheap shit. I don’t know what it is about human beings — they keep fucking opening Pandora’s box for God’s sake. It’s scary, dude. I thought deep fake was bad and now here comes AI and all you do is teach this thing to do this or you type this thing to do that and all of a sudden it’s just there. [...] People have really got in the habit of stepping on graves and they don’t care. That’s what bothers me the most, this true apathy for anything other than their own needs. How fucking selfish do you need to be?"[16]
Aside from their real names, members of the band are referred to by numbers zero through eight.[17]
Slipknot
Production
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[22] | Platinum | 80,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[23] | Platinum | 30,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[24] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[25] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
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| Singles |
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