A-side "Snuff" (Radio Edit) Format CD single | Released September 28, 2009 Genre Power ballad | |
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B-side "Snuff" (Album Version) Recorded 2008 (2008) at Sound Farm Studio, Jamaica, Iowa | ||
"Snuff" is a power ballad by American metal band Slipknot. Released as the fifth single from their fourth album All Hope Is Gone on September 28, 2009, the song charted at number two on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their highest-charted single to date, surpassing "Dead Memories". It was not included in the All Hope Is Gone World Tour setlist but the band performed the song live at the October 11, 2009 performance in Kennewick, Washington. The song is also available for free on www.roadrunnerrecords.com.
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Roadrunner Records placed "Snuff" at number 6 for its greatest music videos of all time. The song was also nominated for Best Single at the Kerrang! Awards 2010, but lost to "Liquid Confidence" by You Me at Six.
It is the final single released from the band before the death of their bassist, Paul Gray who died just eight months after its release, and also the final single release before Joey Jordison left the band four years later. During recent solo acoustic shows, Corey Taylor has performed an acoustic version of "Snuff" as a tribute to Paul Gray.
"Snuff", "Wait and Bleed", "Left Behind", and "Pulse of the Maggots" were released as downloadable songs in the Rock Band series.
Background
On the background and themes of "Snuff", vocalist Corey Taylor said the following:
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".
Music video
It was announced on October 14, 2009 by Roadrunner Records that a music video fit within enough production quality to be considered a short film was to be released for "Snuff", which premiered on December 18, 2009 at 11:09 PM CST. It was co-directed by Shawn "Clown" Crahan and P. R. Brown, and features Malcolm McDowell and Ashley Laurence of Hellraiser fame. 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.
The video is about a man (played by Corey Taylor) who has broken up with his girlfriend, but is truly obsessed with her. The man enters the woman's apartment, smelling things with her scent on it. He then notices on the television a tape that him and the woman had made, and then collapses on to the woman's bed. As she walks out the door, she doesn't notice the man lying on her bed. The man then dives out after her, but she has already gone to visit a neighbour. Going back in, he sits at a table and holds a wine glass that she was drinking from. All of a sudden, the glass shatters and the man goes into a mental rage, throwing things around and screaming. The video ends with the man cross dressed as his ex and someone walking along the corridor whistling the tune to the song.
Track listing
- "Snuff" (Radio Edit) – 4:12
- "Snuff" (Album Version) – 4:36
Personnel
Aside from their real names, members of the band are referred to by numbers zero through eight.