Well, you say a lot of metalheads followed VR, but to me Slipknot aren't metal. They're nu-metal and always will be.
VR, musically, were closer to rock and roll than nu-metal. Even someone whos vocals I love like Bruce or Halford wouldn't fit in VR. Corey Taylor and the rest of Slipknot - nope, not for me. I understand people like them, and I even liked a couple of tracks myself ("Gently" is pretty fucking awesome!) but they and the whole nu-metal genre will always be a joke to me.