A recent appearance on the Modern Drummer Podcast found Slipknot‘s latest recruit in drummer Eloy Casagrande (ex-Sepultura, etc.) sharing the meaning behind his mask. Part tribute to his predecessor in the band, the late Joey Jordison, Casagrande‘s stark facial adornment also pays homage to his own Brazilian heritage and the trauma of a past robbery he was the victim of.
His bandmate in percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan, who serves as the storied Iowan outfit’s creative director, had some basic input with the mask, otherwise allowing Casagrande to proceed as he saw fit. Casagrande relayed of that:
“The mask was something I did with Clown. The first thing he asked me at the beginning is like, ‘Can we have a white mask for you?’ The first thing to bring back Joey’s memory. Respect his legacy. And I made the suggestion to have, like, these black lines to remember the Brazilian indigenous people. You know, so it brings with me the Brazilian people, the Brazilian culture. But my expression, my face expression, this was designed by Clown. He was watching me playing without the mask and he said, like, ‘That’s the way you look when you’re playing Slipknot music. So we’re going to put that in your mask.'”
As for the bullet hole that sits in the middle of his forehead, Casagrande pointed to an alarming incident that took place two years prior, stating:
“I came with the idea of the bullet hole. Two years ago, I was robbed in São Paulo. I was walking in my neighborhood, it was 9am, I was going to the gym, and two guys on motorcycles stopped me and they put a gun to my head and they asked me to give them my phone and my backpack. That was something that somehow changed a lot inside me. And he decided to not shoot. So I was lucky.
It’s also from the philosophy that… gives like the feeling of, you’re going to like me, you’re going to love what I do, you’re going to hate what I do, but I have nothing to lose. I’m already dead. That’s a way of feeling that gives me some kind of freedom when I go on stage. It’s very inspirational as well.”
