Before I Forget (song)

"Before I Forget" is a song by American heavy metal band Slipknot, released as the third single from the band's third studio album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004). It was cited by AOL as the top metal song of the decade. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2006.

"Before I Forget" borrows elements from a much older Slipknot song "Carve", recorded before their self-titled album. The earliest version was in 1996 with Anders Colsefni on vocals. "Carve" was for the SR Demo 1997, referred to by fans as Crowz.

"It's about standing your ground and deciding to be a good person, no matter what people say," recalled singer Corey Taylor. "[Producer] Rick Rubin was convinced the chorus wouldn't work. I told him he was crazy. Lo and behold, it's one of our biggest songs and we won a Grammy for it."

Reception and awards
"Before I Forget" is widely regarded as one of the band's best songs. In 2020, Kerrang and Louder Sound ranked the song number seven and number six, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Slipknot songs.

After being nominated six times, the band won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. It was the second track from the album to be nominated: "Vermilion" was nominated in 2005 for the same award.

Music video
The video for "Before I Forget" shows Slipknot performing the song unmasked and in casual clothes (all with black shirts), as opposed to their usual coveralls. The video makes use of strategic camera techniques in which the members' faces are never totally shown (in some instances, however, some of the band members' eyes are shown up close), thus keeping with the band's running theme of anonymity at the time. Their masks are shown next to them as they perform. At the end of the music video, the band immediately stops playing the song as it ends and they all walk away.

As of March 2023, the music video for "Before I Forget" has over 250 million views on YouTube.

The music video for "Before I Forget" was directed by Tony Petrossian and was voted as the "Most Rocking Video" by the Scuzz audience in the Top 100 Most Rocking Videos 2007.

This music video also helped to garner the band its first and only Grammy Award win for "Best Metal Performance" in 2006.

Equipment

 * Jim Root's Black Charvel Custom San Dimas
 * Mick Thomson's Blood Red Ibanez MTM1
 * Paul Gray's Warwick Streamer Stage 1 LH
 * Joey Jordison's custom Pearl drum kit

Track listing

 * 7" vinyl part one


 * 7" vinyl part two


 * US promo CD


 * EU promo CD


 * Digital download