The legendary death metal pummelers in Deicide have been influencing metal bands young and old since they first burst onto the scene in the late 80’s.
Like the best death metal vocalists, singer and bassist Glen Benton developed a reputation for being just as abrasive off the mic as on it, never being afraid to speak his mind when he feels compelled.
And once upon a time, that no holds barred attitude resulted in a skirmish with the metal kings of Iowa- a little band called Slipknot. Slipknot, rightfully so, credited Deicide as being an important musical influence that helped shape their vitriol-fueled musical approach.
Essentially, Glen was none too pleased with ‘The Knot’ and Corey Taylor because he said that the band had promised to talk Deicide out as support on a Slipknot tour and then never delivered. On the Talk Toomey podcast, Benton let it all air out:
“Not to fucking bust balls, but I’ll bust balls. Slipknot: ‘Oh we’re going to take you guys out man, we’re going to take you guys out dude.’ Yeah blow me. That’s what I say to you. Fucking blow me Corey Taylor and all you fags. OK. ‘Oh we’re going to take Deicide out on tour with us and blah blah blah.’
Blowing air up our asses, back in the day. You know what, you never did a fucking thing for us. You introduced us at a show once. Great, thanks. How about a fucking tour? How about fucking helping us out a little bit? I mean we’ve only been doing this for several years. You guys were like ‘Dude you were what got me started.’ Well you know what, return the fucking favor. You know what I mean?”
“I’m not trying to bust balls, but when bands like Slipknot and shit, they fucking… say they’re going take us out and shit… It’s just one big fucking puff of air up your ass. Not that I give a fuck about opening for them, you know what I’m saying? Because I don’t.
I’ll tell ya this about our band, we’ve done it our way, we’ll always do it our way, and the success we’ve achieved, we’ve earned every little bit of it. We don’t compromise, we’re not about to kiss corporate America’s ass so that’s why we’re still underground man.”
Interestingly, Corey Taylor basically plead the fifth at the time, claiming in a 2018 radio interview that Glen’s bad blood was all news to him:
“I haven’t seen Glen Benton in ten years, you know, and I haven’t talked to him in even longer. So I don’t know why he’s upset with me, I don’t know why he’s upset with us.
We take out the bands who submit for us, man. It’s just that simple. I mean, out of respect to him and what Deicide has done over the years, it’s, like… If you talked to somebody, it wasn’t me, and they sure as hell didn’t talk to me, ’cause I would have tried to do something.”
It’s unclear if the vocalists have since made amends, but we sure hope so. A Deicide/Slipknot tour would be insane. For now, we’ll wait with bated breath and keep asking Satan for our prayers to be answered.
