happy birtday corey taylor.

One of the best voices in metal officially becomes a year older today, as Corey Taylor (he of Slipknot and Stone Sour fame) celebrates his birthday on December 8. The multi-talented, sometimes-masked musician is now 37 years old, and he has come quite a long way from a childhood spent in Iowa.

After learning about rock music from his grandmother and graduating from Elvis licks to Black Sabbath riffage, Taylor helped form Stone Sour in 1992. The band put together some demo recordings and played a steady stream of gigs, but Taylor and bandmate Jim Root became more focused on a new project called Slipknot around 1997. Taylor put his own band on hiatus to focus on Slipknot, which ended up being a reasonable decision.

Though their sound was decidedly chaotic and wholly non-commercial, Slipknot quickly earned a reputation as an intense live act who were forging an entirely new sound in the metal arena. Their buzz caught the attention of record labels and producer Ross Robinson, who twiddled the knobs for the band's self-titled 1999 debut album. That record put the metal world on its ear, and by 2001 (when they released their sophomore effort Iowa to critical acclaim and commercial success), they were the most dominant force in heavy music.

Not unlike the Wu-Tang Clan, the members of Slipknot always took time out to step away from their main group and focus on personal projects. That lead Taylor back to Stone Sour, who put out their debut album in 2002 (a full decade after they initially formed). Stone Sour have proven to be just as big a commercial juggernaut as Slipknot, and it has allowed Taylor to explore all the various facets of his musical personality. In honor of Taylor's big day, check out the clip for Stone Sour's "Through Glass," a big single from the group's second album Come What(ever) May and one of the band's biggest hits. "who said it was my birthday, you crazy motherfuckers" - corey taylor.