SLIPKNOT ended a six-year studio silence on October 21, 2014, with ".5: The Gray Chapter" — the album that turned grief into fuel. Its title honors founding bassist Paul Gray, who died in 2010, and it was also the first record without drummer Joey Jordison, dismissed in late 2013. Out of that turmoil the Iowa nine forged some of their most emotionally charged material: "The Negative One" and "Custer" raged with old-school venom, while "The Devil in I" and "Killpop" showed the band's melodic instincts sharper than ever. Fans answered immediately — the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 132,000 first-week copies and topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Japan and Switzerland. Critics praised the return to a heavier sound, and ".5: The Gray Chapter" proved SLIPKNOT could survive the darkest chapter of their own story.
