If you walk up to a casual fan wearing a Corey Taylor face mask and ask them about the first Slipknot record, they’ll usually point to the 1999 self-titled masterpiece. The one with "Wait and Bleed." But they’re wrong. Sorta. Long before the red jumpsuits and the global domination, there was a strange, experimental, and frankly bizarre project called Mate Feed Kill Repeat. It isn't a "lost" album, exactly, but it’s definitely the one the band seems most comfortable leaving in the rearview mirror.
Released on Halloween in 1996, it’s a record that sounds almost nothing like the Slipknot that conquered Ozzfest. It’s funky. It has jazz fusion elements. There are death metal growls that sound like they crawled out of a Florida swamp. If you're looking for the polished nu-metal aggression of Iowa, you won't find it here. What you will find is a group of guys from Des Moines trying to figure out who they were before the world told them who they had to be.
The Slipknot Nobody Recognizes
Most people don't realize that the lineup on Mate Feed Kill Repeat is a total "who's who" of people who aren't in the band anymore. You’ve got Anders Colsefni on vocals instead of Corey Taylor. Anders didn't have Corey’s melodic range, but he had this guttural, tribal presence that gave the early tracks a much darker, almost ritualistic vibe. Paul Gray and Joey Jordison—the backbone of the band’s early songwriting—are all over this thing, playing stuff that is arguably more technical than anything they did later.
The production is raw. It was recorded at SR Audio in Des Moines for about $40,000, which was a massive amount of money for a local band back then. They only pressed 1,000 copies. Back in the late 90s, owning a legitimate copy of Mate Feed Kill Repeat was the ultimate flex for a metalhead. It was the "holy grail" of the trade boards. Honestly, it still kind of is, considering how many bootlegs are floating around eBay masquerading as originals.
Why the sound is so confusing
The music is a mess. But a brilliant mess. You have "Do Nothing/Bitchslap," which transitions from a heavy riff into a straight-up disco and funk section. It’s jarring. It’s weird. It’s also exactly why the band stood out in the Iowa scene. They weren't just playing metal; they were playing everything at once.
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Shawn "Clown" Crahan was already there, of course, pushing the conceptual boundaries. But back then, the masks weren't the high-budget Hollywood prosthetics we see today. They were DIY. They were creepy in a "found footage movie" kind of way. The whole aesthetic of Mate Feed Kill Repeat felt less like a product and more like a warning.
The Great "Is it an Album?" Debate
There is a lot of bickering online about whether Mate Feed Kill Repeat counts as the first Slipknot album or just a glorified demo. The band themselves usually refer to it as a demo. Why? Mostly because it doesn't feature the "classic" lineup. Once Corey Taylor joined from Stone Sour and the band trimmed the fat, the sound shifted. The jazz and funk were stripped away, replaced by the streamlined, industrial-tinged violence that Roadrunner Records eventually signed.
But if you look at the tracklist, the DNA is undeniable.
- "Slipknot" eventually became "(sic)" on the 1999 album.
- "Tattered & Torn" made the cut for the self-titled debut but got a much creepier makeover.
- "Killers Are Quiet" provided the atmospheric blueprint for "Iowa."
- "Gently" was so good they literally re-recorded it for the Iowa album years later.
If it’s "just a demo," it’s one of the most influential demos in the history of heavy music. It set the stage for the percussion-heavy wall of sound that became their trademark. Joey Jordison’s drumming on "The Confessions" is still some of the most creative work of his career. It’s a shame he isn't here to talk about it anymore.
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Getting Your Hands on a Real Copy
If you find a copy of Mate Feed Kill Repeat at a garage sale for five bucks, you’ve either found a miracle or a fake. Mostly a fake. The original -ismist Recordings version has specific identifiers. Look at the inner ring of the disc. If it doesn't have the "MFKR" matrix code, it’s a bootleg. The green tint on the artwork is often washed out on the fakes, too.
Authentic copies regularly sell for over $1,000 on Discogs. It’s a piece of history. For the die-hard "maggots," this isn't just music; it’s an artifact from a time when the band was basically a local cult. They used to play shows to twenty people in Des Moines, wearing these masks and scaring the absolute hell out of everyone.
The Anders Colsefni Factor
We have to talk about Anders. He was the co-founder. His lyrics were heavily influenced by a role-playing game called Werewolf: The Apocalypse. That’s where the title Mate Feed Kill Repeat actually comes from—it’s a reference to the "lupine" lifestyle. When Corey Taylor was brought in, the band originally wanted Anders to stay on as a backing vocalist and percussionist. He tried it for a bit, but it’s hard to go from being the frontman to the guy hitting a chrome drum in the back. He famously quit on stage. No drama, just a clean break.
Decades later, Anders actually went out and toured the album in its entirety. It was a trip for fans who never thought they’d hear those songs live. It proved that there is still a massive appetite for this specific era, even if the current Slipknot machine has moved on.
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Why You Should Care Today
Music is too safe now. Everything is quantized, polished, and focus-grouped. Mate Feed Kill Repeat is the opposite of that. It is the sound of a band with nothing to lose and no idea that they were about to become one of the biggest acts on the planet.
It’s messy. Sometimes it’s even a little cringey. But it’s honest.
If you really want to understand the evolution of heavy metal in the 21st century, you have to go back to the source. You have to listen to the weird jazz-metal hybrid that shouldn't have worked but somehow laid the foundation for a dynasty. It reminds us that every giant starts somewhere small, strange, and loud.
How to experience Mate Feed Kill Repeat properly:
- Listen for the bass: Paul Gray's work on this album is much more prominent than on later releases. "Confessions" shows off his slap-bass technique that he largely abandoned later.
- Track the evolution: Play "Slipknot" from this album and then immediately play "(sic)" from the 1999 album. It’s a fascinating masterclass in how professional production and a change in vocalists can transform a song’s energy.
- Ignore the "demo" label: Treat it as a standalone experimental record. If you go in expecting Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), you’ll be disappointed. If you go in expecting Mr. Bungle mixed with Sepultura, you’ll love it.
- Check the credits: Look at the names involved. It’s a reminder of how many people it takes to build a vision, even if they aren't there to see it reach the finish line.