Duality (song)


"Duality" is a song by American heavy metal band Slipknot, the song was released as the first single from their third studio album , released in 2004. The music video was listed as Roadrunner Records' greatest video of all-time.

Musical structure

The album version of "Duality" is four minutes and twelve seconds long, and the radio edited version is three minutes and thirty-three seconds long. The song opens with lead vocalist Corey Taylor softly saying "I push my fingers into my...", leading up to lead guitarist Mick Thomson playing a riff accompanied by Craig Jones' keyboards while Taylor finishes the sentence with "...eyes", in a much more intense voice. The song is played in Drop B tuning and features a nu metal style.
Unlike many previous Slipknot singles, "Duality", like most of the songs on Vol. 3, does not have profanity. Thomson explained in a 2008 interview that vocalist Taylor was relying on explicit content in the lyrics, and wanted to try something "different". This was echoed by Jim Root in a 2011 interview. AllMusic said that "Duality"'s lyrics "aren't unique" to Slipknot but described it as "otherwise strong". Stylus Magazine said "Duality" had a "grindcore riff". Q wrote that the song "blow the competition away".

Release and reception

"Duality" was originally released as a CD single on May 4, 2004.
On May 25, 2004, the single was released on 7-inch red vinyl to coincide with the release of the album. There is also a 7-inch picture disc release which includes the same track listing.
"Duality" reached band records of number five and six in the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks charts. In the UK Singles Chart, the song reached number 15. The song also charted on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at number six. To promote the single, the band also made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The song is included in the video games Madden NFL 10, the introduction theme in the 2004 PlayStation 2 game ATV Offroad Fury 3, as a downloadable content for the Rock Band series that was released on December 8, 2009 and the debut trailer for Nail'd. It is also included in the game Guitar Hero Live.
Jack Osbourne ranked the song number two on his list of "101 Adrenaline Rock Songs", with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana beating it to the number one spot.
In the 2004 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Awards, the song was voted "Song of the Year" and "Music Video of the Year".

Music video

The music video, directed by Tony Petrossian, cost between $300,000 and $500,000 and was recorded on March 27, 2004. It was shot in Des Moines, Iowa, at a fan's house that was due for renovation. In the aftermath, the family asked the band to replace an extensive list of objects and fittings that were damaged or destroyed during the shoot. Roadrunner Records provided the family with roughly $50,000 as compensation. Prior to filming, the production told the crowd only to act wild but not destroy the house; this rule was left unheeded. Midway through the shooting, the band and fans were asked to avoid jumping around too much, as it would have resulted in either the floor caving in or the entire house collapsing. Fans were also told to take extreme caution around Craig Jones as the nails in his mask may injure them.
The video starts with a crowd of fans running towards the camera which is clearly behind a window. As the song switches in intensity the video cuts to shots inside the house of the band performing in close quarters with the fans. The video constantly switches between the band performing and fans destroying the house and the surrounding environment. When Corey Taylor sings "You cannot kill what you did not create", the words are seen painted on the garage door behind the crowd of fans. Near the end of the song is a coda where the music and singing build to a highly energetic section. Prior to this Corey seemingly calms the crowd with an outstretched arm, followed by him pacing through the crowd repeating "All I've got, all I've got is insane". The scene cuts to an even larger crowd watching the performance outdoors. Once the chorus begins again the crowd immediately continues to destroy their surroundings and the song suddenly ends. It was revealed later that the band had performed the song several times while the crowd vandalized the house, and the resulting footage was edited to produce the video.
Shawn Crahan recalls that the band "asked our real fans to be in the video and people came from all over", adding that "it meant so much to us. We weren't really supposed to destroy that house – but we did it anyway. Another plus for that song is that I get to beat the fuck out of my keg. What else could you want?" One of the fans was a teenage British national who used some of his savings and his grandmother's money to travel to Iowa from England for the shoot and was accommodated by Corey Taylor after being denied a check-in at a local hotel due to his age.
Two incidents occurred during the filming; two fans were injured by broken glass but were treated on the scene by paramedics stationed during filming and a doctor who lived in the neighborhood where the shoot occurred, while a group of youths were arrested by police present during filming for vandalizing a Ford Taurus rented by the band's record label to bring fans to the shoot's location with baseball bats.
The video is available on the CD single and the DVD , released in 2006.

Charts

Certifications

Track listings

All songs written by Slipknot.
;CD single
;Limited edition CD
;7" vinyl
;US promo CD
;EU promo CD

Release history

Cover versions

In 2014, as part of their album, Just The Tip..., comedy rock lounge act The Lounge Kittens covered the song.
In 2016, the British metalcore band Asking Alexandria covered the song for the compilation album Decades of Destruction.
In 2018, the German rapper Alligatoah covered the song for the cover album Fremde Zungen.