Slipknot formed in the early 90's in Des Moines - Iowa. As the 'Knot have often said. Des Moine is the a**hole of America. A total **** hole and a b**** of a place to grow up in. And it's true.
Slipknot started with 6 members, only a few of which are still in the band, Shaun and Paul being the only ones, I think, Joey came in a bit later, he wasn't an original member as such, but that's debateable. They picked up a huge underground following and Ross Robinson eventually saw them in a club called "Hairy-Mary's" which Shaun owned for a while, about a year, I think.
Corey Taylor joined the band soon after that and he had a vision of what Slipknot should and could be, and he was the one who inevitably made them what they are today.
Now, they have 9 members, some may argue that 5 of them aren't needed, but that's in the eye of the beholder. Each member is a master of their trade and plays their part in the band very well.
Slipknot is:
#8 Corey - Vocals
#7 Mick - Guitar
#6 Shaun - Custom Percussion
#5 Craig - Samples/Media
#4 James - Guitar
#3 Chris - Custom Percussion
#2 Paul - Bass
#1 Joey - Drums
#0 Sid - Turntables
Right, now that you know who Slipknot is and who does what, let's go onto the individual songs.
*NOTE* I WILL BE REVIEWING THE RE-RELEASED VERSION OF THIS ALBUM - RE-ISSUED IN 1999 AND INCLUDES THE SONGS: GET THIS, INTELOPER(DEMO) AND DESPISE (DEMO) *NOTE*
742617000027 - 2/5
This serves as nothing more than an intro. It's not, as some people think, "The whole thing, I think, is S***" but, "The whole thing, I think, is Sick" which leads onto the next track. This phrase is constantly sped up and slowed down, and there's a sort of whistling in the background, which is repeated for the whole of the 30 second or so track.
(SIC) - 4/5
For those who don't know, the term (SIC) is used by authors when they say something that isn't technically or grammatically correct, so they can get a point across. It means Said in Context. (SIC) is one of Slipknot's "things." Like, the new national anthom, the heretic anthem, maggots, and all that stuff. Corey Taylor (vocalist) says Stay Sick at the end of concerts, and at events with the fans, and such. But, enough on that. The song opens up with James (Jim, as he's more frequently known) playing a few chords of the same tone, then it comes in with Corey screaming "Enemy, show me what you wanna be! I can handle anything! Even if I can't handle YOU!" This is an extremely aggressive song, and ends with some crazy chords in the same repeated pattern. It's the first proper song on the album and it's the face of what's to come from the rest of the album.
Eyeless - 4/5
This song deals with Corey's Father, and how he never knew him and when he did, it sucked. "'Cos he's a phantom, a mystery and that leaves me NOTHING!" relates to his father, so you can see where the inspiration comes from. Beware the incredibly loud scream of "MOTHER..... F***ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the end of the song.
Wait and Bleed - 5/5
This is the second single from the album, and the best song on the album. This song is about a man who's dreaming about how he's sitting in a bathtub, slowly bleeding to death, and then he wakes up and finds he actually is. Kind of disturbing but the song meaning.. Well... Means nothing in this song. All you want are the awesome lyrics, crazy guitars, brilliant vocals, awesome drumming. "I can't control my shakes! How the hell did I get here? Everything is 3d Blasphemy!" The song opens with Joey on the Hi-Hat and a few lone Guitar notes and goes into an audio assault of craziness. It finishes with the whole band chipping into the madness, with Joey doing some incredible pedal work and some great guitar work as Corey screams "AND IT WAITS FOR YOU!!!!"
Surfacing - 4/5
*WARNING* NOT PARENT FRIENDLY *WARNING*
This is *THE* New National Anthem, as I mentioned earlier. The lyrics say "F*** it all, f*** this world, f*** everything that you stand for. Don't belong, don't exist, don't give a s***! Don't ever judge me!" The last sentence is what the song is all about, not giving a s*** about what people think about you, not letting other people get you down and not being judged before people even get to know you. There is an incredible ammount of angst in this song and an even more incredible ammount of the F bomb.
Spit It Out - 4/5
The first single, and damn, it's aggressive. Rap metal at its finest, some say, and a lot of 'Knot fans agree. The video takes inspiration from The Shining and was promptly banned from MTV for having "Violent Undertones" which it does. Heh. This song is hate wrapped up in a bundle of a few minutes, as are most of the songs on this album.
Tattered and Torn - 3/5
This is just.. Weird. It's about slitting your wrists and slowly dying or something like that. And you people who say "OMGZ WTFZORZBBQLOLOLOLZBBQWTFZ EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO!!!!!!!!" can just keep it to themselves. At least Slipknot doesn't often go on about Splitting up with girlfriends and saying "OMG I'M SAD I'LL GO SLIT MY WRISTS NOW! WOO!" One song on the Iowa album does that, but it still manages to be a great song, but enough on that.
Me Inside - 3/5
A good song. Not a great song, but it's good. "Too far gone, I'm canatonic, bleeding claustrophobic scars. Seperate from all emotion, life is just too F***ING HARD." There's some good guitar work, but it's a little too abstract in the arrangement for my tastes, download it from iTunes or anywhere that you pay tracks (I hate pirates. Yarr.) and see what you think of it.
Liberate - 4/5
One of the strongest tracks on the album, brimming with anger. The song frequently says "LIBERATE.. MY MADNESS!" It's very heavy and about 3/4 of the way through the song, it gets much heavier and ends very well.
Prosthetics - 5/5
Another extremely good song. This track takes inspiration freom an old movie called "The Collector" which is about this weird old dude who collects.. Err.. Stuff, and he ends up "collecting" this young girl, and that's basically the song.
It starts off slow with Shawn on his oil drum (Love it) and mick comes in with some very eerie guitar playing, and it steadily escalates into a very heavy piece of music.
No life - 4/5
Another rap metal track. It seems to deal with the taking away of freedom. The song opens with the words: "My freedom is best, whole country's on house arrest, and everyone's a suspect! You can't feel the flow because ya DIE, face down on the suicide." It's a very speedy song, and it's fairly heavy. It'll please most listeners.
Diluted - 5/5
The more refined version of the Inteloper demo track, which comes later on in the review. And damn, it's a good song. It seems to talk about extreme paranoia or schizophrenia (not sure about the spelling of that word, if it's wrong, I do apolagise.) Or even paranoid schizophrenia? I'm not sure, but the vocals are terrific, dark and brooding, and eventually, in the bridges, it almost seems that Corey's breaking down as he sings/screams. Very effective. The song says "What the hell.. did I... DO TO DESERVE.. ALL OF THIS?!" which is screamed at 100 decibels, of course.
Only One - 4/5
This song's message is simple. Corey's pissed at someone, and he's going the beat the s*** out of him, or so he hopes. And of course, it's very easy to understand that only one of them walks away from it alive, and in the song, Corey explains how he's going to be that man. Again, another song brimming with hate and anguish, as is most of the album. A rap metal track, which seems to be a strong thing on this album, compared to MFKR, Iowa, or Vol. 3.
Scissors - 5/5
This one isn't for the light hearted. It's a very slow building, strong finishing song. 8 minutes of sheer chaos. At the start, Corey practically whispers "I play doctor.. For 5 minutes, flat. Before I cut my heart open..." and by the end of the song he's screaming the improvised words of "YOU B****!!!!!!!! YOU... B****!!!!!!!! I DON'T NEED.. YOU... ANY... MORE!!!!!!!!!!!" It's possibly the angriest song on the track, and definately not parent friendly. Brillaint track though. And at the end of the track, well, I'll leave that for you to find out. Seriously. The last few seconds listen to him scream "I DIE!!!"
Get This - 3/5
You can see why this song was never put on the original release (1998, the same year as SOAD's Self titled. The release I'm reviewing, as I said, is the 1999 re-issue. I'll explain why it was re-released later on.) This song is about how Corey is sick of all the posers and bulls***ters around in the music industry. Just a cool excuse for Thrash, really.
Inteloper (DEMO) - 5/5
The sample about mid-song makes the entire song worth listening to, and another plus, it's nice to hear what Diluted sounded like before they'd refined it and polished it to what it is earlier in the album. It's a very cool track to listen to, a little more raw in terms of sound to the rest of the album, but it's to be expected, it's a demo track.
Despise (DEMO) - 4/5
You might be wondering why this track is so long. Well, more than half of the actual track is just blank, there's a hidden track at the end which is "Eeyore" and a little bit before that. I'll leave you to research the hidden track. But, this was what Purity was pre-1998. Now, the track Purity was based off a publicity stunt from an American crime thing on TV, similar to the UK's Crimewatch. It's a very basic and very DIFFERENT version of Purity, basically. A demo track, again. Damn catchy, too. A cool end to the album.
This album is not for the weak at heart. It's aggressive, and immature with the hatred and anger, at times. It's pure noise, there's not much of a break from the screaming and shouting, but it depends on your tastes. At school, I'm penalised for liking Slipknot, whilst everyone else comforms to "GANGZTA" Culture, which I'm not taking the piss out of in any way. Music and culture is in the eye of the beholder. You have your tastes and you have mine. I don't like rap music, you may not like metal. Works for me.
This album is hate on a compact disc, simple. It's very sweary, too.
Content Rating: If there's a edited version of this album, it would be probably worth a 12 (BBFC) or R In america. Otherwise, most likely, it would be 15 (BBFC) or NC-17 in America. And another tip, try before you buy. Buy one or two of the 4-5 rated tracks, especially wait and bleed, spit it out, Prosthetics and Surfacing.
Overall: 4 and a half Stars.
