The heavy metal community has suffered an unfortunate loss of one of the genre’s biggest stars. Slipknot’s founding drummer Joey Jordison died on Monday at the age of 46. According to Rolling Stone, a representative for his family shared the news and revealed that Jordison died “peacefully in his sleep.” The cause of death was not specified and it remains unknown at the moment.
“Joey’s death has left us with empty hearts and feelings of indescribable sorrow,” a statement from his family reads. “To those that knew Joey, understood his quick wit, his gentle personality, giant heart, and his love for all things family and music.” They added, “The family of Joey have asked that friends, fans, and media understandably respect our need for privacy and peace at this incredibly difficult time.” Rolling Stone also revealed that the family of the late drummer plans to hold a private funeral service for him at some point in the future.
Over the course of a decade, Jordison helped contribute to the band’s first four albums: 1999’s Slipknot, 2001’s Iowa, 2004’s Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), and 2008’s All Hope Is Gone, which went on to be the band’s first No. 1 album. Jordison would depart from Slipknot in 2013 and that same year, he formed a new band, Scar The Martyr, with Jed Simon and Kris Norris.
That band would go their separate ways in 2016, leading to Jordison announcing a new extreme metal band, Sinsaenum, that same year. Here, Jordison was accompanied by Attila Csihar (of Mayhem and Sunn O)))), Sean Zitarsky (of Chimaira and Dååth), Frédéric Leclercq (of DragonForce), Stéphane Buriez (of Loudblast), and Heimoth (of Seth). He remained in the band, which released albums in 2016 and 2018, up until his death.