“Wait and Bleed” by Slipknot

"Wait and Bleed" was the first single Slipknot ever put out, the lead track sent ahead of their self-titled 1999 debut on Roadrunner, and it arrives like a riot in a boiler room. Before it went out that July, the verses were remixed so that Corey Taylor sings them with an actual melody instead of screaming them, which only makes the harsher moments hit that much harder.

Around him the whole nine-man machine is going at once: Joey Jordison's drums firing like a nail gun, Mick Thomson and Josh Brainard grinding the guitars down to gravel, Paul Gray's bass rumbling underneath, Shawn Crahan and Chris Fehn clattering on extra percussion, Craig Jones working the sampler and Sid Wilson scratching on the turntables. Ross Robinson produced, with the band co-producing, and the chaos comes through untamed; Chuck Johnson recorded it and mixed it with Robinson and Jordison.

It climbed to No. 34 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart in February 2000, took the Kerrang! Award for Best Single that year, and it's still one of the band's best-loved songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.