When there’s metal in your blood and a frightening mask on your face, you don’t have to take ‘no’ for an answer.

After being slapped in the face by the city of Clive’s noise ordinance, Des Moines metal band Slipknot has swapped venues for its much-hyped local performance. Pre-emptive complaints made by Clive residents near 7 Flags Events Center, 2100 NW 100th St., Clive, resulted in the band being denied its planned concert for Tuesday. Instead, the band will take over the Val Air Ballroom, 301 Ashworth Road, West Des Moines.

Despite skirmishes with hometown officials, the nine members of Slipknot have held on to their roots. Having grown up in Central Iowa, most of the members still have houses in or near Des Moines.

“You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy,” says percussionist Chris Fehn, who is also known in the band as #3 or “Dick-nose,” because of his long-nosed mask. “Iowa’s just a cool place to be — it keeps you in check. We never forget where we came from.”

Ten years after Slipknot’s birth, the band is a staple for headbangers around the world, but Fehn says being Des Moines’ musical claim to fame isn’t as much of a burden as one might think.

“I don’t think we think, ‘Hey, I’m representing Iowa.’ We’re representing Slipknot,” Fehn says. “We’re kind of in another world, with the music industry, but I’m not ashamed to say I’m from Iowa — it’s kind of a novelty.”

Fehn says wearing masks, which the band members first donned in the their earliest days playing in Des Moines, is neither a way to escape from their past nor a record label-produced gimmick.

“Nobody gave a crap who we were or what we were doing, so we were kind of like, ‘Fuck you! We’ll put masks on and then you’ll never know who we are because it doesn’t matter anyway,'” he says. “It’s not about what clothes we were wearing. We just wanted to show that we were playing great heavy music.”

Ironically, the image Slipknot has created has undoubtedly been a key proponent in its success. Rabid fans are known for mimicking the members with homemade Halloween masks and bright jumpsuits. Fehn insists, however, that the members’ outward appearance wouldn’t have carried them far if they weren’t making good music.

“It’d be cool to go see a band all freaked out and dressed up and everything,” he says. “But if the music sucked, it wouldn’t be so big as it is.”

It is this knack for gallivanting about “all freaked out” that has earned Slipknot’s fans the prestigious title of “maggots.”

“We flipped over a dead deer one time and there were so many maggots on it,” Fehn explains. “It looked like our crowd, you know — just swarming around.”

Not the kind of term any old music fan would appreciate, but very fitting for metalheads with long, sweaty hair and spiked leather collars.

“They’re sick,” Fehn says. “They’re nuts, and I love it. When they come to the show, they have all this aggression to let out.”

Speaking of being sick, those familiar with Slipknot’s self-titled debut will know Fehn not only for his drumming, but for his brief vocal contribution to the album. The song “Eeyore” features an extended recording of Fehn vomiting after seeing something so disturbing he won’t talk about it.

Although Slipknot’s new album, “Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses),” due May 25, will be free of puking, Fehn says it contains the heaviest material Slipknot has written to date, as well as the most melodic songs.

When he’s not chilling at his parents’ home in Ankeny, Fehn adds a rather unorthodox percussion style to Slipknot’s sound, though it can be more fully appreciated in live form.

“I beat on kegs and drums, light things on fire, break shit, whatever,” Fehn says. “What’s cool about being in this band is I don’t have to answer to anybody.”

This kind of cocky attitude is typical of Fehn’s overall rock star pride, and is something he says he’ll remember fondly even when his days of rocking out are over.

“It’ll be nice when I’m fat and old to put on a video and show my kids what I used to do,” the 32- year-old says.

But before being introduced to Slipknot, Fehn says his offspring will need a little elementary education in heavy metal.

“I’ll probably put on a little Slayer first — get them worked up like I did.”

Who: Slipknot, Fear Factory, Chimaira, God Forbid

Where: Val Air Ballroom, 301 Ashworth Road, West Des Moines

When: 7 p.m., Tuesday

Cost: $26