Snuff (song)

"Snuff" is a song by American heavy metal band Slipknot. Released on September 28, 2009, as the fifth and final single from their fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, the song charted at number two on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their highest chart placement to date, surpassing "Dead Memories".

Roadrunner Records placed "Snuff" at number six for its greatest music videos of all time. The song was also nominated for Best Single at the Kerrang! Awards 2010, but lost to "Liquid Confidence" by You Me at Six.

It is the final single released from the band with original bassist Paul Gray before his death eight months after its release and drummer Joey Jordison before his departure in 2013 and death in 2021. During recent solo acoustic shows, Corey Taylor has performed an acoustic version of "Snuff" as a tribute to Gray.

"Snuff", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Wait and Bleed", "Sulfur", "Left Behind" and "Pulse of the Maggots" were released as downloadable songs in the Rock Band series.

Background
""This is the slow one. It's another personal one. Again, not naming names, it's about someone who helped me through a lot and I thought she felt the same way that I did and then she really let me down. At the same time, it was good that she did, because it was that final push to me figuring out myself. The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory." – Corey Taylor"

""Corey doesn't really write music for Slipknot – but, when he came over to hear the songs Paul [Gray, bassist] and I were working on for All Hope Is Gone, he showed me this… I had him lay a scratch track down in the studio. Then I went in late at night, without telling him, and laid down some drums… When he heard it the next day, he started crying. It's Corey's masterpiece." – Joey Jordison"

Music video
It was announced on October 14, 2009 by Roadrunner Records that a music video with a high enough production quality to be considered a short film was to be released for "Snuff", which premiered on December 18, 2009 at 11:09 PM CST. It was co-directed by Shawn "Clown" Crahan and P. R. Brown, and features Malcolm McDowell and Ashley Laurence of Hellraiser fame. Corey Taylor is seen for the third time in a Slipknot video without his mask (the other two times being: "Dead Memories" and "Before I Forget") and is cross-dressed at the end of the short film.

As of September 2023, the song has 161 million views on YouTube.

Track listing

 * Digital Download
 * 1) "Snuff" – 4:26


 * US one-track Promo CD
 * 1) "Snuff"


 * EU/US Promo CD
 * 1) "Snuff" (radio edit) – 4:11
 * 2) "Snuff" (album edit) – 4:26

Personnel
Aside from their real names, members of the band are referred to by numbers zero through eight.

Slipknot
 * (#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
 * (#7) Mick Thomson – rhythm guitar
 * (#6) Shawn Crahan – percussion, backing vocals, music video director
 * (#5) Craig Jones – samples, media
 * (#4) Jim Root – lead guitar
 * (#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
 * (#2) Paul Gray – bass
 * (#1) Joey Jordison – drums
 * (#0) Sid Wilson – turntables, keyboards

Production
 * Dave Fortman – production
 * Jeremy Parker – engineering
 * Colin Richardson – mixing
 * Matt Hyde – mix engineer
 * Oli Wright – assistant engineer
 * Ted Jensen – mastering