Duality

Slipknot returned in 2004 after a brief hiatus, releasing Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), their third album, which arrived following the darker tone of their 2001 record Iowa. "Duality" came out on May 4, 2004 as the album's first single, running four minutes and twelve seconds on the album and three minutes and thirty-three seconds in its radio edited form. It opens with vocalist Corey Taylor softly saying "I push my fingers into my..." before guitarist Mick Thomson's riff joins Craig Jones' keyboards and Taylor finishes the line in a far more intense voice. The single reached number five on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number six on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, both band records at the time, and hit number 15 in the UK.

The lyrics avoided the strong profanity found in many earlier Slipknot singles. Taylor, according to guitarist Thomson in a 2008 interview, had been relying on explicit content and wanted to try something different, a point Jim Root echoed in 2011. The song was played in drop B tuning and carried a nu metal style.

A music video was recorded on March 27, 2004, in West Des Moines, Iowa, at a fan's house that was due for renovation. Directed by Mark Klasfeld and Tony Petrossian at a cost of between $300,000 and $500,000, it featured the band performing while dozens of fans crashed through windows and walls, destroying the house. Shawn Crahan later recalled that the band were not really supposed to destroy the house but did it anyway. The family afterward asked the band to replace an extensive list of damaged fittings.