About Face

Because sometimes your everyday death mask just won't do: Iowa-based metal band Slipknot have traded their signature scary getups — temporarily — for visages more in tune with their just-out single, ''Vermilion.'' Says Slipknot's Joey Jordison: ''It didn't seem right to wear our normal masks,'' given the single is ''melodic and subdued.''(Sample lyric: ''Carve my name in my face to recognize.'') Hence, the relatively tame results, as seen in the song's video, molded from the nine members' actual heads. ''The [masks have] a gray complexion, and our cheeks are shadowed like a decomposed body.'' Just so you don't confuse them with the Backstreet Boys.