"The Heretic Anthem" (released as "Heretic Song" as a single) is a song by American heavy metal band Slipknot. The song was released as a promotional single from their second album Iowa. Revolver magazine praised the track and described that it "flirt[s] with full-on death metal in their extremity, both sonic and thematic." Kerrang! said the song was "A death-metal-influenced epic... A brutal, rampant and pissed-off dose of metal fury."
Song meaning The song was written about record labels who initially showed no interest in signing a recording contract with the band. The lyrics, "I bleed for this and I bleed for you/ Still you look in my face like I'm somebody new/ TOY – nobody wants anything I've got/ Which is fine, because you're made of/ Everything – I'm – NOT", reflect this attitude.
Track listing Promo single
UK promo single
EU promo single
Covers The American band Periphery covered the song in 2012 and released as a bonus track for the limited edition of Periphery II: This Time It's Personal. Deathcore band Spite covered the song and released it as a single in 2014 Carnifex covered the song on their 2018 EP Bury Me in Blasphemy
Personnel Slipknot (#0) Sid Wilson – turntables (#1) Joey Jordison – drums (#2) Paul Gray – bass (#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals (#4) Jim Root – guitar (#5) Craig Jones – samples, media (#6) Shawn Crahan – percussion, backing vocals (#7) Mick Thomson – guitar (#8) Corey Taylor – lead vocals
Production Ross Robinson – producer Mike Fraser – engineer Andy Wallace – mixing Steve Sisco – assistant engineer George Marino – mastering Steve Richards – executive producer
References