Many modern day Slipknot fans have been wondering and trying to figure out and decipher the truth behind the so called ‘Crowz’ record. Well here’s the best way to describe it in short terms

“Crowz” is not an actual album but a vast compilation of different demo recordings with both Andy and Corey on vocals (seperately). These recordings were to replace the MFKR tracks for a new revised album. After Anders left the band they re-recorded Corey’s vocals over many of the pre-existing demo tracks. “Crowz” was recorded, and re-recorded, and re-recorded…

When Slipknot were signed on July 8th of 1998 they headed out to the Indigo Ranch studios with producer Ross Robinson to begin working on their ultimate and legendary self titled debut album (1999) which included re-makes of many older tracks from both the ‘Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat’ album and the ‘Crowz’ recording sessions. Revised ‘Crowz’ and ‘MFKR’ related material can also be heard on their sophomore album ‘IOWA, as well as on their 2004’s ‘Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses’ record.

When we refer to the term ‘Crowz’ we are referring to a specific era in Slipknot’s recording history. The word ‘Crowz’ came to be the term used by fans over unreleased Slipknot material from 1997 to early 1998. However this term is not entirely fan made, Anders himself shouted the word ‘Crowzzz…’ before playing Tattered & Torn with Slipknot at the Safari Club in 1996. It was some what of a spoken intro word for the song. The word is spoken by Andy in an old version of Scissors from 1997 and is mentioned in the beginning of the track ‘The Dogfish Rising’ on the Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat album. The booklet for ‘MFKR’ also mentions the word ‘CROWSSSS’ in the liner notes. A crow is also depicted on the drawn/doodle group photo in the middle of the MFKR booklet, right between Andy and Clown. Back in the old days Craig ‘133’ would start most of their shows with a sample of squawking and screeching crows, it would go on for a few minutes until finally blasting into the track Slipknot which the band always used to open the shows. The intro sample can be heard opening the Omaha 1998 gig.

Anders Colsefni on Crowz

The songs that “Crowz” refers to are extra songs Roadrunner wanted to hear from us, after reviewing MFKR. They were not part of an album, nor did they have a title for their “group”. Crowz was an inside joke we began after Paul and I saw his neighborhood blanketed with them one October night. It was eerie. When we told the others about it, Joey started saying “crooowwwwwwwwwz”. All spooky/joking. Soon, we were saying it in interviews to be weird. We were all about inside jokes, so we started saying “Crooooowwwwzzzz” in a ghostly way. Not an album. LOL. But, if it makes it easier for you to reference those songs, so be it.

Why Crowz with a ‘Z’? Well, Slipknot used to write it with an S actually back in the old days as an inside joke (Explained above). Joey and Clown even used to sign fellow bands online guestbooks with “CRROOOWWWSS” in 1998.

The reason for the Z is actually a combination of two separate inside jokes mixed into one. Back in late 97-1998 the band (or at least some members) used to sign their names with Z’s on both ends. Anders explains: Shawn kinda just made a “thing” of his first user name, like saying “The Clowns”, or “Zee Clownzz”. Then Joey began using it on things, and it just kinda stuck. I never really got the fascination they had in it, myself.

Clown was known to sign copies of MFKR with the signature ZzclownzZ and Josh’s nickname on our forums (MFKRboard.com) was ZzOldFourzZ when he signed up in early 2003.

“Slipknot was once a local band, and we had a group of fans called the Sleepyclan (or as they wrote it ZzsleepyclanzZ). We all put “Zz” at the beginning and end of our aliases to make it look like they do in the comics when someone is asleep. It’s so silly now, but we were young and probably drunk. – ZzJitterzZ (sleepyclan member)

If you want to hear Crowz explained, directly from Andy’s mouth, I suggest you watch this video below.

 

Denny Harvey (ex Stone Sour guitarist) on Crowz

Before Slipknot got signed they were working on a “revised” MFKR with better produced versions of those songs, along with newer stuff that was written with Corey on vocals, This was to do two things: 1) Give them a quality demo to shop to labels. 2) If not signed, they could put it out independently as a replacement for MFKR.

Some of this stuff was recorded at SR with Sean McMahon, some was done at Juniors’ Motel in Otho. It really depended on what was needed at the time. Some of those songs have many multiple versions and mixes. For example, there are at least two versions of ‘Prosthetics’ that I have heard prior to the S/T. Some songs, like Snap, were done quickly at Otho and sent out as a demo to give record companies something new compared to MFKR.

From what I know, Crowz was really MFKR pt II.
Slipknot had began to develop a regional following in the mid-west. Record labels had been looking at them but passed. One of the problems they were having with MFKR was they were really a different band by that point. Donnie had left, Mick had joined, Craig moved to media, etc.

They started to re-record some of the older MFKR songs with newer ones, like ‘Carve’ and ‘Windows’, for an updated CD release that better reflected the band at this point. This was to be Crowz.

The plan was to release it and it would replace MFKR. The original sessions/versions were with Andy on vocals. As far as I know, as of a few years ago, there were only a handful of copies that exist. They later re-recorded Corey’s vocals over some of those tracks.

Some of the recording was done at SR, and I think the Otho sessions were supposed to go on there as well. There were SO MANY fucking recordings of things I really can’t remember what was what. I can remember listening to at least three different versions of ‘Prosthetics’ on one tape.

When Slipknot signed to Roadrunner, they shelved Crowz. Somewhere, I have a copy of the concept art Corey was working on for the cover.
No, I’m not going to share…

Think of Crowz as the demos for the S/T album. The one I would love to hear again has the original Anders vocals.

DaVo on Crowz

A lot of things come to mind as I sit here laughing to myself, like they had found a dead crow and kept it’s decomposing body in a jar. during interviews and on stage Shawn would take the lid off and smell it and hold it up and say crowz. It became a kind of band caught word for a while. What did it mean who the hell knows. The crow was used until will into the summer of 97. They took it to interviews and would begin with saying nothing but Crow over and over. Another thing was handing out Taxidermy mistakes to the crowd. They were the odd balls but people remember them.

Crowz was to be released October 31st 1997. (exactly one year after the release of MFKR)

Crowz refers to a saying we (slipknot) started which started following a spooky incident when we where taking Paul home after a studio session, and the road his place was on was covered entirely with crowz, or blackbirds, or whatever. Thousands upon thousands of them. When the headlights flashed over them, they all took to the trees as one big, black mass. It was eerie. Then, they all sat in the trees and phone lines watching us. That’s where Crowz came from. Plus, Shawn found a dead one in his driveway, and kept it in a big, commercial pickle jar, and carried it around at shows until it turned to mush, During shows Shawn would open the jar, this would cause him to vomit all over the place and also cause fans to start vomiting all over the place.It was kept in the jar with all the bacteria and flesh eating creatures. It started secreting this brown liquid and became a fine sauce. [yum] Some kids broke the jar open and played catch with it for awhile and now it’s disposed. – According to an Interview with Corey in 2009 “The Crow kind of turned to sauce and was kind of ceremoniously buried in the floor of the old bar that Clown used to own (Safari Club).

A list of rare songs from 95-98:

Carve – Anders demo
Carve – Anders “Crowz”
Carve – Corey “Crowz”
Carve – Corey “Silver disc”
Coleslaw – Anders demo
Coleslaw – Anders “Crowz”
Coleslaw – Corey “Crowz”
Coleslaw – Corey “Silver disc”
Do Nothing/Bitchslap – Anders “Crowz”
Do Nothing/Bitchslap – Corey “Crowz”
Eeyore/Idiot – Anders live june 96.
Fur – Anders demo
Gently – Anders “Crowz”
Gently – Corey “Crowz”
Gently – Corey “Silver disc”
Interloper – Anders demo
Interloper – Anders “Crowz”
Interloper – Corey “Crowz”
Lust Disease – Anders demo
May 17 – Anders demo
Me Inside – Anders demo
Me Inside – Anders “Crowz”
Me Inside – Corey “Crowz”
Me Inside – Corey “Silver disc”
Nature – Anders demo
Only One – Anders “Crowz”
Only One – Corey “Crowz”
Only One – Corey “Silver disc”
Part of Me – Anders demo
Prosthetics – Anders demo
Prosthetics – Anders “Crowz”
Prosthetics – Corey “Crowz”
Rites and Rage – Anders demo
Sauce – Mick demo
Scissors – Anders demo
Scissors – Anders “Crowz”
Scissors – Corey “Crowz”
Scissors – Corey “Silver disc”
Slipknot – Anders “Crowz”
Slipknot – Corey “Crowz”
Slipknot – Corey “Silver disc”
Snap – Corey demo
Spit it Out – Corey demo
Spit it Out – Corey “Silver disc”
Tattered and Torn – Anders “ Crowz”
Tattered and Torn – Corey “Crowz”
Vizqueen – Anders demo
Wait and Bleed – Corey demo
Wave Like the Pope – Anders demo
Windows – Anders demo
Windows – Anders “Crowz”
Windows – Corey “Crowz”
Windows – Corey “Silver disc”

Untitled 1 – Later declared to be Coleslaw
Untitled 2 – Later declared to be Carve

Anders Colsefni on unreleased songs

Rites and Rage – The band decided Rites and Rage was a bit too “Jet City Woman” by Queensryche-sounding. lol. Paul’s bass line was a bit similar, but that was it. I liked the song because I had some intricate things I was doing on my drums. It was the 3rd song we wrote, and we played it live. It was, however, one of the first to leave our live set.

Fur was just brutal. Shawn, Joey, and I pounding on our biggest drums in unison as hard as we could while a simple but heavy as hell guitar and bass riff droned out, Ministry-style. Then Paul and I growled/yelled as hard as we could, over and over: “I am Fur-Covered-In-Blood”, which was a Werewolf character in one of our Role-Playing games, like Face-Of-Pain. “Fur-Covered-In-Blood” is the full title. Please feel free to let everyone know that on your site! We just got used-to saying “Fur”.

Why was the song ‘Part of Me’ pulled from the MFKR album? – I assure you it wasn’t a great track. lol. We rapped way too much on that one, and Shawn had trouble keeping up on his vocal parts. lol. It was short and sloppy.

Visqueen had Joey on guitar, Shawn on drums and me on vocals until about 2/3’s of the way through, then I jump on drums and Shawn starts a chant with Paul and Joey. It was a bit quirky but the riffs were awesome. I don’t remember what it sounded like.

Wave Like The Pope was a song we recorded for MFKR, but we cut it because it was a “ska” song, and it wasn’t “US”.

Interloper is the first song Corey collaborated with us on. Well, he took the song I wrote and re-wrote it with some background screams for me to do

1. What is the album commonly known as Crowz?
Slipknot- 1997 SR Audio Demo LP
Co-Produced by Sean Mcmahon and Slipknot – SR Audio
Mixed: during March ’97 by Sean Mcmahon and Slipknot – SR Audio
This CD was the Second release by Slipknot. This album was a vast improvement for Slipknot in both production and performance including updated versions of MFKR songs and some new songs. The album was never intended to be released to the public but as a promotional album for various record companies whom Slipknot wanted to be signed by.

Shortly after Corey’s arrival (and Anders’ subsequent departure) the band scrapped this album and began working on newer material (the 98 demo).

Album members present during recording include:
Anders Colsefni – vocals/percussion
Mick Thomson – Guitars
Josh Brainard – Guitars
Paul Gray – Bass
Shawn Crahan – percussions
Craig Jones – Samples
Joey Jordisson – Main Drumkit

During recording Anders Colsefni left Slipknot, Corey Taylor laid additional vocals on various tracks.
– A cassette tape was sold on eBay in 2007 containing four tracks from the Crowz recording sessions – Carve, Coleslaw, The Me Inside and Windows. All studio recordings from SR Audio 1997. It is unknown whether the tape contained Anders or Corey on vocals.

Slipknot – 1997 Demo EP
Track listing:
01. Carve
02. Coleslaw
03. Me Inside
Recording Line-up:
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals and percussion
Shawn Crahan – percussion and back up vocals
Nathan Jonas Jordison – main drum kit
Mick Thomson – lead guitar
Josh Brainard – rythm guitar
Craig ‘133MHz’ Jones – samples
Paul Gray – bass

Slipknot – 1997 SR Audio Demo LP
This demo is sometimes called the ‘Gold Disc’ by fans.
Produced by: Sean McMahon and Slipknot.
Recorded at: SR Audio, Des Moines, Iowa
Members that recorded the demo:
Anders Colsefni – lead vocals and percussion
Shawn Crahan – percussion and back up vocals
Nathan Jonas Jordison – main drum kit
Mick Thomson – lead guitar
Josh Brainard – rythm guitar
Craig ‘133MHz’ Jones – samples
Paul Gray – bass

Track listing:
01. SlipKnot/Gently
02. Me Inside
03. Do Nothing/bitchslap
04. Coleslaw
05. Only One
06. Prosthetics (written Prosthesis on the disc. This was later declared a typo by Anders)
07. Carve
08. Tattered & Torn
09. Windows
10. Interloper
11. Scissors (aka Heartache and a Pair of Scissors)

Note: The first cover photo is not the official artwork as there never was any official artwork for crowz. This artwork is made by the staff of this site exclusively for this section. The photo below is of the actual 1997 11-track SR Audio demo disc.

Slipknot – 1997 8-track Demo Disc (with Corey)
This demo is sometimes called the ‘Silver Disc’ by fans.
Track listing:
01. SlipKnot/Gently
02. Me Inside
03. Coleslaw
04. Windows
05. Spit it Out
06. Carve
07. Only One
08. Scissors
Recording Line-up:
Corey Taylor – lead vocals
Shawn Crahan – percussion and back up vocals
Nathan Jonas Jordison – main drum kit
Mick Thomson – lead guitar
Josh Brainard – rythm guitar
Craig ‘133MHz’ Jones – samples
Paul Gray – bass

Spit it Out from this disc is available on our YouTube page Here.
It’s possibly the earliest recording of Spit it Out that exists.

Songs that were used fully or partly for future material:

Slipknot – Fully re-done and re-named (sic) for the self-titled album
Gently – Fully re-done for the IOWA album
Me Inside – Fully re-done for the self-titled album
Only One – Fully re-done for the self-titled album
Prosthetics – Fully re-done for the self-titled album
Tattered & Torn – Fully re-done for the self-titled album
Interloper – Fully re-done for the 1998 Otho demo. The song was the demo for the track ‘Diluted’ of the self-titled album. Then later added (Otho version) to the digipack version of s/t
Scissors – Fully re-done for the self-titled album
Lust Disease – (recorded with winnings from the ’97 battle of the bands) This song became ‘Left Behind’ on the Iowa album. Also, most of the words from this song he later used for the Painface song ‘Lust’.
Carve – Riffs used in ‘Before I Forget’ on Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
Coleslaw – Has riffs that were later used on the songs ‘The Shape’ on Iowa and ‘Opium of the People’ on Vol 3.
Windows – A riff from this song was later used in ‘People = Shit’ on Iowa.
Nature – (recorded with winnings from the ’97 battle of the bands) The chorus riff was re-used on ‘The Heretic Anthem’ on Iowa in 2001.
May 17th – Riffs were later used for ‘New Abortion’ on Iowa.

A Story By Anders Colsefni
Dark it was, so dark and chilly around late november i think… it was late november. Anyway i was walking home from whatever the hell it was that i was doing that evening, i had no car as a matter of fact, i still have no car. But what im trying to say is i rounded the corner that leads to my pad and i took maybe five steps and came to a complete halt.
The entire street appeared to be alive writhing around in sinewy shadow like from the trees as well i noticed that whatever they were noticed me too because they all stopped making the noise they were making and turned their eyes collectively at me. My blood went to ice and i thought about turning around and running. I stood there facing the mass there must have been a couple hundred thousand of them and they were really paying close attention to me i think i almost sauced in my pants!I chose not to run away instead i inched my way closer hoping i wouldnt be bitten cause god knows if those fuckers have diseases i was no more then ten steps away from them and they hadnt moved yet.
So i started wondering what the hell i should do next when all of a sudden the one closest to me let out a blood curdlings quawk that echoed into the cold night about three seconds later the entire body answered in unison with the same sound and immediately lights from the neighborhood houses began popping onto see what the hell had made such a loud hideous noise. It seemed to me like they were an army and the one in front of me was the general looking out into the center of the enormous mass of black.
I saw a lump that they had gathered on top of i did know why there would be something that large laying in the middle of the road for them to perch up on seeming to sense my stare in their direction. The ones that formed the lump pushed their way off the lump and into the crowd as a gesture to show me what i was thinking. Once they were off the lump i saw that what they were standing on was a mixture of red and white, but i was too far away to pick out any details once again seeming to read my mind, the group parted in the middle like moses parting the sea to create a path for me to the center of the irmoot.
I felt like i was going crazy these things knew what i was thinking without using any of the good judgement that i had always prided myself in having. I carefully walked into the black insanity towards the objects i lent lay waiting at the center just as each step brought me closer each step also made my vision clearer as to what i was looking at twenty feet away. I knew what it was but i didnt stop walking, i had to be certain, i had to be sure, i could not be mistaken is it whtat i think i thought it is?
c r o w s
Yes it was and my heart gave way to complete and utter sadness at the sight before me as i looked down upon the remains off our small children that had mostly be endevoured i momentarily forgot about the abomination that surrounded me. I didnt notice the convenient path way closing back up behind me nor did i witness the saliva dripping from the carnivorous mouths.
They were still hungry and they had developed an appetite for humans, i began to weep for these young ones when the first flew up to my shoulder and began snipping at my ear, quickly followed a couple more. Soon i was enveloped in the black mass but i couldnt feel anything at all i had possibly witnessed the worst thing imagineable and i couldnt feel anything, nothing, not anything except for a wave of dizziness that passed over me and a bright light glaring at me though the holes between them.
All off a sudden i heard the unmistakeable sound of a car hornblasting and i thought for a moment that i was saved when the giant group took to the air. They had been scared off by the cars lights and horn. Since i couldnt feel anything it took me a minute to realize that they had taken me with them.!
…crowzzzzzzz………