Psychosocial (song)

Updated on Oct 20, 2023

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B-side "All Hope Is Gone" Genre Alternative metal		Format CD 5" digital single
Released July 7, 2008 (2008-07-07) Recorded February 2008 (2008-02) – June 2008 (2008-06) (at Sound Farm, in Jamaica, Iowa) Length 4:44 (album version) 3:57 (radio edit)

"Psychosocial" is a song by American metal band Slipknot. It was released as the second single and fourth track from their fourth studio album, All Hope Is Gone. The song entered airplay on June 26, 2008 and was originally planned for release as a digital single on July 1 but was delayed and released on July 8. Slipknot performed "Psychosocial" live for the first time on July 9, 2008, at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington. In 2008 the track was featured on the soundtrack to Marvel's Punisher: War Zone. The song was also nominated for 'Best Metal Performance' for the 51st Grammy Awards, but lost to Metallica's "My Apocalypse", and was nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best Single.

"Psychosocial", along with two other Slipknot songs, "Duality" and "Sulfur," was released as downloadable content for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on December 8, 2009. It is also featured as a playable track in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

Musical themes

Percussionist Shawn Crahan told The Pulse of Radio what he could regarding "Psychosocial", saying, "One thing I can feel is like that song has got a lot of, I would say social anxiety. It's got a real good tempo. It's really fun and it's different. I think most of the stuff that we have is different".

Rolling Stone praised the song, saying that it "slows down the tempo to bludgeon with a steady, pounding groove instead of all-out thrash in a manner reminiscent of the band's more slow-burning but still malicious second album, Iowa". They went on to explain, "That track is capped off with a time-signature shattering guitar/drum breakdown that will leave the best air-instrumentalists stumped".

Music video

The music video for "Psychosocial" was shot at Sound Farm studios in Jamaica, Iowa on June 30, 2008. The shoot was delayed due to an unrelated head injury sustained by turntablist Sid Wilson before the shoot, who was subsequently hospitalized. On July 18, 2008 the video premiered on MTV's FNMTV show, hosted by Pete Wentz. The video, which was directed by Paul Brown, was shot using high-end cameras which shoot 1,000 frames per second and are contrasted with traditional 35 mm hand crank camera equipment. Percussionist Shawn Crahan explains; "we have the most extreme on both ends, with nothing in the middle. That's what the video is, and nobody does that. There's an art form behind it."

During an interview with Kerrang!, guitarist Jim Root revealed that the video features the burning of the purgatory masks adorned by the band members in the splash teaser photos shown on Slipknot's website, reportedly because the masks represent the band's ego.

There are two versions of the video. One uses the album version of the song, whilst the other uses a much shorter version of the song; excluding the "Limits of the Dead!" lines. The video was nominated to Best Rock Video at the VMA's 2008. On YouTube the video of the song had gained over 22 million views, before it was removed in December due to a dispute between Roadrunner Records' distributor, Warner Music Group, and YouTube.

In popular culture

The song was included in the music video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

The song was featured for available of the soundtrack The Punisher: War Zone.

The song regained some attention when Isosine created a mashup of "Psychosocial" with the song "Baby" by Justin Bieber, resulting the song entitled "Psychosocial Baby" received a lot of attention on the video sharing site YouTube. Corey Taylor, has commented in an interview that he finds the mashup "amusing", even calling it "genius", but also comments that a lot of Slipknot fans are showing hatred towards the mashup. As of June 2016, the song has about 17 million views, while the original single has over 130 million views.