Not a response to Todd’s review, but chunks of a review I couldn’t get to come together.
Its growing on me with further listens, but its not what I pay Slipknot for.
This isn’t exactly what I was expecting from the Rubin produced 3rd album by Slipknot, I didn’t want to hear the band stretching themselves, I wanted to hear them do what they do…faster, heavier and louder. And for that first listen I fell into the same tarpit that fans of The Bends fell into with the arrival of Kid A.
Slipknot albums traditionally open with a brief fucked sounding instrumental, letting an ugly, noisy barrage of sounds seep out and build up. This, and the quiet(ish)/loud chorus/verse juxtaposition used to be the extent of their sense of dynamics; the respite picking up pace before charging into a combination of right hook riff and drums permanently damaging the tiny hairy pink bits of your inner ear.
Those who loved Slipknot for their pace and channelled noise are likely to set the wheels in motion of beginning to dismiss the album on the strength of (or the apparent lack of) the opener. With “Prelude 3.0”s verses echoing The Cure’s Pornography and a chorus straight from Alice in Chains, this album uncoils itself as opposed to chest bursting from the headphones. A million light years away from the heavy grind of a song like Iowa’s relentless “Skin Ticket” or the dirgey atmospherics of its opener “(515)”.
Mainstream acts rarely feel the need, or have the musical vision to justify the numbers, to permanently have 9 members and on paper it looks like a recipe for disaster, and in real life it often is (see Wu-Tang). Having a DJ, a sampler/programmer, 2 percussionists as well as the more traditional 5 piece band line-up there was always scope with Slipknot to be doing so much more.
Vol.3 is edging towards expanding their parameters and has consciously set it sights on being more than this Summer’s Metal soundtrack to property damage, self/world loathing and serial killer schick. The choice of Rubin’s open mind and guiding hand seemed the logical choice for progression over Ross Robinson’s brand of pushing the players into ‘focused insanity’.
Something innately good about seeing 10 year old kids wearing t-shirts and hoodies proclaiming “People = Shit”. Slipknot have managed to bring the extremes of metal into mainstream pop culture, long live Kerrang!
Maybe heavier through atmospherics than previous work, but I wanted it to be harsher, heavier, faster, louder, uglier and sicker.