Joey Jordinson died on Monday, aged 46.

His family writes in a statement quoted by several American media that he passed away peacefully and quietly in his sleep, without mentioning the cause of death.

Jordison was born in 1975 as Nathan Jonas Jordison in Des Moines, Iowa.

He got his first drum set when he was eight years old and at the age of 20 he was involved in forming Slipknot, together with Paul Gray and Shawn Cruhan.

With his fast music, largely characterized by Joey Jordison's recognized skill with the drums, and the horror film - inspired masks that the band members used in the music videos and on stage, Slipknot soon achieved great success in the metal world.

They released their self-titled debut album in 1999, followed up with "Iowa" two years later and in 2006 were awarded a Grammy for the song "Before I Forget" from their third, Rick Rubin-produced album "Vol.

3: (the subliminal verses) ”.

Voted drummer

During his time at Slipknot, Joey Jordison, who wore an expressionless Japanese theatrical mask on stage, wrote several of the band's most successful songs.

In addition, he also played in the horror punk band Murderdolls and periodically toured as a drummer with Korn, Metallica and Rob Zombie.

In 2010, Jordison was voted the world's best drummer for the past 25 years by readers of Rhythm magazine, something he himself has described as the proudest moment of his career.

That same year, Slipknot's bassist Paul Gray died in connection with an overdose.

Tribute by Metallica

Joey Jordison left Slipknot in 2013, after 18 years and three albums.

The year after the defection, he claimed to have been fired from the band, but later said that the reason was that he had been diagnosed with the unusual disease transverse myelitis, a form of multiple sclerosis in which the spinal cord becomes inflamed.

In later interviews, Jordison stated that with the help of physiotherapy he had managed to find his way back to the drums.

Several celebrities in the hard rock world have paid tribute to Joey Jordison since his death, including Slipknot members Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan, who both posted black boxes on Twitter. The band Metallica writes "RIP brother" on Facebook, while Matt Heafy from the trash metal band Trivium states that "Joey's contribution to the music changed hard rock ... as we know it".