Review
Slipknot album satisfies heavy metal listeners
December 11, 2008
Slipknot, the psychosocial Iowan, mega maniacal, extreme metal band recently released their fifth studio album on Roadrunner Records. Classifying the band after they released “Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses” in 2004 has become quite the unique challenge. Their previous works were dancing on the fine line of obnoxious and chaotic metal. The album “All Hope Is Gone” is packed with an immense variety that should satisfy most metal listeners, whatever genre cal derivation you can come up with.
“All Hope Is Gone” kicks things off with “Gematria” (The Killing Name), a track packed with in-your-face riffs and an overdose of Corey Taylor’s chaotic boldness. Lyrically and vocally, Taylor comes off something like teenage angst and truly separates himself from many other “nu-metal” vocalists. “Sulfur,” the second track, keeps things moving along at a pace most classic metal fans will fancy as a record selling track. Fans both old and new will find something to appreciate in this track. It is not until “Dead Memories” does the album slow down into something avid listeners of Stone Sour can relate to, a power ballad.
This is where variety comes into play. There is a sort of alternative hard-rock radio-worthy single feel to this song. Not that this is a bad thing, but it really takes the listener off track from the true feel to this album. “Vendetta” quickly picks things back up and plunges the listener into a plethora of double kicks giving this track sort of an anthem feel.
Sadly to say, there is another track that mimics one of Stone Sours’ hit “Through Glass.” Honestly, instrumentally and lyrically “Snuff” seems nearly identical. I wonder when they are playing their high energy shows, do they stop the show to go through an alternative sissy metamorphosis and quickly transform into the metal badasses they should be to carry on the rest of the show?
Although this album does not reinvent the wheel in terms of nu-metal, it does add to the résumé of Slipknot’s worldwide onslaught against metal. There are a few tracks which provide die-hard fans with the expected brutality so many us desire to destroy our eardrums with each and every day! Even though it took Slipknot four long years and a hell of a lot torment to release “All Hope is Gone,” they packed the album with enough to keep us waiting several more years down. Maybe there is hope after all.
Erik Wood is a student at UW-River Falls.