Des Moines, Iowa is not a big city. In fact, it is probably even smaller than the 200,000 population would suggest. And, as in all small Midwest communities, nowhere is that more evident than inthe music scene.  

And, as you can guess, in Des Moinesyou would be hard pressed to find a seasoned musician without ties to Iowa’s favorite bastard sons (unless you’re an elitistand/or a hater, in which case, fuck you). That said, let’s get it out of the way. Josh was in Slipknot. And not just kinda, sorta in Slipknot. In fact, he played on both their independent debut Mate, Feed,Kill, Repeat, and on every track on their eponymous Multi-Platinum 1999 Roadrunner debut (and rumor has it, he’s the one who brought in the red jumpsuits). And if the connection ended there,we could probably move on.  But this is Des Moines. 

So in 1998, at the exit of Josh “Gnar” Brainard during therecording of said debut, Slipknot, at the suggestion of vocalist Corey Taylor,recruited guitarist Jim Root, formerly of StoneSour, to take his place, Jim who was at the time playing in Deadfront with vocalist Aaron Peltz and former Stone Sour bassist Shawn Economaki (who would also exit after Root’s depature to work for the ’Knot and eventually reform Stone Sour with Taylor and Root.)

 So as any red-blooded singer whojust lost his whole band would probably do, he formed another band, along with Deadfront co-conspirator Danny Spain, (who also played in thethrash band Atomic Opera in theearly nineties with Root) DOWNTHESUN,by way of Kansas City, with musicians referred to them by Slipknot mainmanShawn Crahan, who would also eventually help the band land a deal with Roadrunner Records.

 And while DOWNTHESUN would go on to tourwith Slayer and Soulfly, and release a respectable and well-received 2002 debut, theband was unceremoniously dropped from Roadrunner the following year, and inPeltz own words “failed miserably”.

After the demise of DTS in 2003, Aaronwould join forces with Brainard and founders Jerry Spargur and Jeremy Easley in ON A PALE HORSE, a Des Moines band formedout of ashes of PAINFACE (which ironically featured original Slipknot vocalistAnders Colsefini), who would unleash their independent debut Black Is Not The Darkest Color, thatsame year.

Confusing? Yeah we know.

 In 2004 the band joined forces with Grammy winning producer Warren Riker (Down, Crowbar, Cathedral) to produce Blacks’ follow up, the self-titled stoner-coreopus, On A Pale Horse, which would further establish the band’s position as an underground powerhouse, winning over fans in contemporaries including Down/Corrosion Of Conformity’s Pepper Keenan, and, you guessed it, members of Slipknot, including bassist Paul Gray, who would serve as executive producer on it’s Riker helmed follow-up, A Generation of Vipers, in stores August 7th via Corporate Punishment.

So is there any musical similarity betweenSlipknot and OAPH? Nope. In fact, while their roots are firmly planted in the Metal community, OAPH probably have more in common with QOTSA, DOWN, , CLUTCH, ACID BATH, and KYUSS. Shameless name dropping? Probably, but it’s a Hell of a story.