When bands launch album anniversary tours, they generally play that album and sprinkle in the rest of their hits throughout the set or save them for the encore.

Not so for Slipknot, who brought their Here Comes the Pain 25th anniversary tour to the Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown on Wednesday night.

After blasting through the first three songs — “(sic),” “Eyeless” and “Wait and Bleed” — from their self-titled debut, singer Corey Taylor offered his thanks and then a message about the night.

“We started here 25 years ago, so tonight it is my pleasure to tell you: Welcome to 1999, (expletive),” said Taylor, with Slipknot playing Ozzfest on June 12, 1999, at Star Lake. “We have put something together very (expletive) special for all of you crazy (expletive). I’m here to tell you right now, you will not hear a song that was not written (after) 1999 tonight.”

That meant no “Psychosocial” or “The Devil In I” or “Duality” or “Before I Forget” — all songs with at least 288 million views apiece on YouTube — for the nine-member heavy metal band from Iowa.

In a night catered to their hardcore fans, Slipknot played all but one song from their debut album. One song was omitted — that would be “Diluted” — with four pre-recorded tracks winding up as segues/breaks. They also added a “hidden song” (“Eeyore”) plus two more that were import bonus tracks — “Me Inside” and “Get This.”

Two of the songs — “No Life” and “Scissors” — hadn’t been played live since 2000 before the tour’s opening night on Tuesday in Noblesville, Indiana.

“After 25 years, this is a gift,” Taylor added later Wednesday.

With a massive Slipknot banner as their backdrop, the band hit the stage around 9:30 p.m., entering one by one under a green glow. A pair of turntable/keyboard stations flanked the drum kit on an elevated platform in the rear, with another pair of percussion areas adorned with beer kegs on either side of the stage.

Dressed in matching red jumpsuits with a UPC bar code on their backs, they all wore different masks: there was a clown and what appeared to be a gas mask as well as a white gimp mask with side horns, just to name a few.

For a band primarily in their 40s or early 50s — with new drummer Eloy Casagrande checking in at 33 — Slipknot were aggressive all night long. Shawn “Clown” Crahan and Michael Pfaff prowled the stage in between adding percussion or additional vocals, with both guitarists, Jim Root and Mick Thomson, savagely head-banging. (Bassist Alessandro Venturella, DJ Sid Wilson and another musician, whose identity has yet to be revealed, complete the band.)

Taylor’s performance must take a toll daily, physically and emotionally. He balanced a range of styles — melodic singing, intense screams, unsettling growls and rap-singing — while pouring himself into the combustible songs packed with hostility and profanity … and release.

Related

• Lamb of God, Mastodon celebrate 20th anniversaries of their landmark metal albums in Pittsburgh
• With arms wide open: Pittsburgh welcomes Creed on Summer of '99 tour
• 2024 Pittsburgh area concert calendar

For the encore, they started with “Spit It Out,” which Taylor saying it had been banned by MTV back in the day.

“The beautiful thing about that: MTV is gone,” he said, “and we’re still (expletive) here.”

Then came one of the band’s anthems, “Surfacing,” described by Taylor as “your own national (expletive) anthem,” followed by a harrowing “Scissors” to close the night.

Slipknot diehards, known as Maggots, turned out in droves for the show. Some took the opportunity to dress up, with a few sporting masks or jumpsuits, while others donned face paint. Other sightings included fans cosplaying as Harley Quinn and, inexplicably, the “Macho Man” Randy Savage, as well as the Heavy Metal Baby.

Knocked Loose, a hardcore punk/metalcore band out of Kentucky, proved up to the task of opening for Slipknot.

With a high-pitched screaming voice that might not be to everyone’s taste, singer Bryan Garris exhorted the willing audience to get moving, rallying thousands to pump their arms, bang their heads or push the person next to them. (And create a circle mosh pit on the lawn and a miniature wall of death, too.)

Featured Local Businesses

More local businesses

With a new album, “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To,” that dropped in May, Knocked Loose went hard as they played six songs from that album, including “Suffocate” and “Don’t Reach for Me” — described by Garris as a song “about someone I (expletive) hate.”

On their penultimate song, “Deep in the Willow,” Garris yelled “Say my name: Knocked Loose, (expletive).” If they didn’t know the band’s name before the show, they certainly did after their punishing, 50-minute set.

Orbit Culture, out of Sweden, started the night with a half hour of thrashy, melodic metal laced with massive riffs, pummeling double bass and intense singing, with a heavy dose of growling.

The fast-rising band released an album, “Descent,” last August and followed it with an EP, “The Forgotten,” in December. They closed with the hard-hitting “Vultures of the North” from the album.

Mike Palm is a TribLive digital producer who also writes music reviews and features. A Westmoreland County native, he joined the Trib in 2001, where he spent years on the sports copy desk, including serving as night sports editor. He has been with the multimedia staff since 2013. He can be reached at mpalm@triblive.com.

Details

Slipknot setlist
(sic)
Eyeless
Wait and Bleed
Get This
Eeyore
Me Inside
Liberate
Purity
Prosthetics
No Life
Only One
Encore
Spit It Out
Surfacing
Scissors