| CD REVIEW Slipknot |
 |
|
Band : Slipknot In the summer of 1999, the metal scene was promptly shaken up by the remarkable debut album of Slipknot. The band from Des Moines, Iowa, composed of not less than 9 members, made quite an impression with their aggressive mixture of death metal, thrash metal and industrial.
The heavy sound of Slipknot was also illustrated by the production of Ross Robinson, the percussive overload, the inventive sampling and the fact of not being shy of experiments. Another point of attraction was the image-building, expressed by having a number from 0 to 8 as artist name and wearing masks and coveralls.
For some criticasters it was easy to say that Slipknot were successful not thanks to their extreme music, but due to their extreme image that appealed to a lot of young metal fans, the so-called maggots. Ten years later, Slipknot have proved that there is more to the band than just their (spitting) image.
Together with bands like for instance Korn, Deftones and Coal Chamber, the nine of Slipknot were acknowledged as the leaders of the NU metal genre or more recent the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, besides other leading bands like for instance Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God and Machine Head.“Slipknot” was the first album of Roadrunner Records to achieve platinum status in the USA (= 1 million copies sold) and meanwhile the counter has crossed the two million copies sold in the USA, making it the best-sold Slipknot album in their career. In total, Slipknot have sold more than ten million albums worldwide.
The album was reissued in December 1999 with a slightly altered track listing, since "Purity" -as well as the short sample-filled prelude "Frail Limb Nursery"- were removed due to copyright infringement regarding the lyrics of the song "Purity". Both tracks were replaced by “Me Inside” (this track can also be retrieved amongst the 25 songs on the 10th anniversary edition). Recently, on 09/09/2009, the release of Slipknot’s debut album was celebrated. A special 10th anniversary edition came out, containing the original album plus 10 bonus tracks (25 songs in total with a playing time of 78 minutes) and a DVD with a short film, music videos and a live concert. The release date (09/09/09) is a reference to the fact that the band has nine band members and have sustained the same line-up since the original release of the album.
To be more specific about the extras: the audio bonus tracks include 2 different versions of “Spit It Out” and “Wait And Bleed”, a mix of “(sic)” and also the long-lost classic “Purity” (so it can be assumed that meanwhile the band has acquired the rights to release "Purity" and the song is now featured on the 10th anniversary edition, but “Frail Limb Nursery” isn't). Other audio bonus tracks are the demo’s of “Snap”, “Interloper” and “Despise”. The tracks "Interloper" and "Despise" were already available on the digipack version that came out in December 1999 and "Snap" was featured on the soundtrack for the 2003 movie Freddy vs. Jason. The DVD contains “Of The (sic): Your Nightmares, Our Dreams”, a short film (50 minutes) by percussionist Shawn Crahan with behind-the-scenes look at Slipknot in 1999, when the debut album was released. Other features on the DVD are the music videos of “Spit It Out”, “Wait And Bleed” and “Surfacing”, an animated version of “Wait And Bleed” and the full live festival concert of 45 minutes filmed at Dynamo Open Air, Nijmegen (the Netherlands) on June 3rd 2000. The setlist that day was the following one: “742617000027”, “(sic)”, “Eyeless”, “Wait and Bleed”, “No Life”, “Liberate”, “Purity”, “Prosthetics”, “Spit It Out”, “Get This” and “Surfacing”. Slipknot rocked like a hurricane and the crowd was warmed up for headliners Korn and Iron Maiden. And what’s the latest news on Slipknot? After the extensive world tour, promoting the latest studio album “All Hope Is Gone”, ended in summer 2009, the nine band members took some time off. Currently, Corey Taylor is working on a new Stone Sour album, as well as a solo album. Clown revealed that he is writing and releasing a book titled “The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey”; telling the journey of being in Slipknot. He has also started his own art gallery showings, selling his photographs, paintings and canvas prints. So, it seems like you’re not going to hear from Slipknot before the end of 2010 or even 2011. 80/100 Erik. |