See Slipknot’s Interactive 360-Degree ‘The Shape’ Video
Slipknot recently surpassed 1 billion views on their YouTube channel, and they’re celebrating by releasing an interactive, 360-degree live video of them performing the Iowa track “The Shape” that they shot at last year’s Knotfest. The clip provides several alternate angles from the stage, allowing viewers to drag the camera up, down and around for views the average fan, or “maggot” as Slipknot affectionally calls them, wouldn’t otherwise see. The video captures the band’s first-ever live performance of the song, as part of a September 25th set that included their entire Iowa album, and M. Shawn Crahan – the band’s clown-masked percussionist and visual mastermind – decided to mark the occasion by filming the track.
“From the beginning, Slipknot’s goal has always been world domination,” he tells Rolling Stone. “That goal is still the same today. The video for ‘The Shape,’ filmed at our festival Knotfest with our ‘maggots,’ and over 1 billion views on our YouTube channel, proves it’s happening. Like it or not.”
Crahan has directed many Slipknot videos over the years, including Vol. 3‘s “The Nameless” and “This Blister Exists,” and all of the clips to surface from the band’s latest LP, 2014’s .5: The Gray Chapter. Last year, he also directed his first feature film, the surrealistic comic-book adaptation Officer Downe.
In a Rolling Stone interview about that film last November, he also discussed the future of Slipknot. At the time, he said he hoped to get together with Slipknot guitarist Jim Root in February to start writing new music. As for when they’ll go back into the studio, he said he would leave that up in the air.