Corey Taylor has played Slipknot‘s ‘Wait And Bleed’ for the first time live as a solo artist.

The Slipknot frontman, who released his debut solo album ‘CMFT‘ under his name last year, was backed by his band for the performance on Thursday (August 12) at Fargo Brewing Company in North Dakota.

It also marked the first time the singer has performed the song – the lead single from Slipknot’s 1999 debut album – without wearing a mask. Slipknot are known for wearing disturbing, carnival-inspired masks which they continue to wear offstage when doing interviews.

Taylor also sang ‘Wait And Bleed’ the following night (August 13) at The District in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. You can see footage below.

In a 2019 interview with Overdrive Taylor said they couldn’t see Slipknot ever performing without wearing masks. “It’s such a part of our art. It’s also part of the reason why we change the masks with every album. Unlike KISS, they have always used the same makeup and it never evolved. For us, we’ve changed with every album and not only the masks but also the outfits. You can totally tell every album by the uniform. I think things like that have kept Slipknot relevant, it’s kept the music vibrant, it’s kept the live shows different and it’s kept us from stagnating.

He continued: “So, no, I could never see us losing the masks. If we ever got the notion to do Slipknot unmasked, I think I’d be, like, ‘Well… eh, no.’ We are all in our 40s now and we still very much have a love/hate relationship with what we do but every time we step on stage, we’re absolutely prepared to give it everything we’ve got. So, for me, personally, when that feeling stops, when we start trying to cut corners and try to make things easier, just so we can ‘get on with it,’ that’s when it’s gonna be time to call it a day.”

The news follows Taylor paying further tribute earlier this month to Joey Jordison, his Slipknot bandmate who died unexpectedly in his sleep on July 26.

The singer shared an image of himself, Jordison and other late bandmate Paul Gray, who died of a morphine and fentanyl overdose 11 years previous.

Meanwhile, Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan has said he will continue to wear protective face masks even if the risks surrounding COVID-19 one day dissipate.