Album Rating: 4.0

"for all the talk about corey taylor being mr nice guy, clearly this band has been 100% ruthless business for 2 decades now"



I'm sure he's a solid dude on a personal level, but he and Clown are cutthroat when it comes to how this band conducts itself. I mean, it's one thing to demand that other members abstain from drugs since that is what historically has fucked them over as a collective. But they operate it like shareholders and, I dunno, it's affected how I view them and their "art". Even introducing new members to the band is exclusionary at times as they dictate when and how a new person is introduced, if they're introduced at all. That was cool 25 years ago when they at least mimicked attempts at masking their identity. But they've been mask-off (literally) for 2 decades now but still go to lengths to muddy the waters when someone is either hired or fired.