Slipknot

While many metal fans are split on Slipknot, with some quite critical of their contribution to the genre, there is no doubt that (along with a few other artists) the band helped bring back a theatrical feel to metal during the late 1990s. Following the no-frills grunge era, Slipknot embraced the showmanship of performers such as KISS, Alice Cooper, W.A.S.P., and GWAR, and mixed it with a harder-edged metal sound with strong influences from thrash and death metal. They were pivotal in creating resurgence into a new era of shock rock.