Review Summary: A solid debut from a solid band.
Back during the late 90's and there was a lack of creativity in music. Bands such as Limp Bizkit were dominating the air waves, and good bands that deserved the air play were tossed aside and forgotten. This all changed in 1999 when a nine-piece from Des Moines, Iowa released there debut album. To the band members surprise the album became huge and largely successful. Critics praised this album, but is it really all that great? Does it deserve all the praise critics gave it? Let us find out.
1)742617000027 - A very interesting intro. The line "the whole thing I think it's sick" is repeated multiple times until it finally fades into.. N/A
2) (Sic) - This is one hell of an opening track. It hits you right were you want it to. It's heavy and fast paced. The percussion on this track is very impressive. This all thank to Joey Jordinson and Slipknot's two custom percussionists Chris Fehn and Shawn Crahan. 5/5
3) Eyeless - This track starts off with some nice turntable effects and fast drumming. This was the first song off the album that I heard, so I will be a little biased about this song. But the one thing that is kind of a turn off is that the repeating of "you can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes" gets very repetitive very fast. Overall it's a good track. 4.5/5
4) Wait and Bleed - This was the first single off the album, and I can see why. Cory Taylor shows off his singing voice instead of his screaming which he does throughout most of the album. It switches between clean vocals and screaming which is a pretty nice in my opinion. 5/5
5) Surfacing - When life has treated you horribly and everybody says they hate you, what song do you listen to? This one. If there was ever an angriest song ever award, this would be a strong contender. I love the anger in this song, especially the chorus. 5/5
6) Spit It Out - The second single off the album. This is where the Nu-metal tag came in for this band. If you rap in a song with heavy sounding guitars you're Nu-metal (according to most people). But let's get to the song itself. It's short heavy and has nice raping. Not much to say about it. 4/5
7) Tattered & Torn - A very dark and creepy sounding track. Throughout most of the song you really can't make out what Cory is saying. Originally this song was suppose to fade into Frail Limb Nursery, but due to legal issues that song had to be removed. 3/5
8) Me Inside - This was originally intended to be a digipak song, but it later replaced Purity. It's probably my second least favorite song on the album. It's just not one of my favorites. 3.5/5
9) Liberate - One of the best tracks on this album. Hard and heavy, this track will blow you away with its kinetic energy. I defiantly recommend this track to everyone that likes fast pace in your face type of songs. 5/5
10) Prosthetics - This is a pretty boring track. I would recommend skipping it unless you really like this song. There's nothing really special about it. 2/5
11) No Life - Another fast paced raping song. At this point in the album most of the songs are getting pretty boring and are not really impressing much. This is mostly due to all the screaming. Still a pretty good song nonetheless. 4/5
12) Diluted - I never really listened to this song much and I don't plan on it. It just doesn't excite me like the rest of the album does. 3/5
13) Only One - This is where the album starts picking itself up again. The song is fast paced and really makes you feel the anger in it. And I love the chorus "only one of us walks away". 5/5
14) Scissors - This song has a nice little intro, but after that it gets kinda of boring. It's a 6+ minute long song, this is mainly why it's get boring after awhile. It's angry, but that is more towards the end when your forcing yourself to listen to the rest of the song. 4/5
And there you have. This is a great album, but of course with fourteen songs there's bound to be a few that just don't impress. All in all this is a good solid album. Now the question is, is this Slipknot's best album? If you asked most fans they would say yes, but to me it's probably there second best next to Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses). Give it a listen.
