Andrew Highton - 2/1/2012
Des Moines is the hometown of the 18 legged Iowan machine that is Slipknot. When they first hit the scene with an unorthodox group containing 9 members, it was surely never destined to make it. With their self-titled album becoming a great success indeed, it was quite clear they meant business as they took the "Nu-Metal" genre and injected it with smash-mouth offense and catapulted the genre to a whole new musical level. 2 years down the line and the world has stood still and taken notice of a controversial, mask-wearing, verbally profuse group of crazed men who know how to write music. This time they've thrust upon us their newest release simply titled, Iowa, a place they know oh so well and an album that is oh so brilliant.
Iowa (the album) offers 14 tracks and I would go as far as saying that they're all unique in their own way; more importantly a good way that you'd want to listen to over and over again.
The opening track (515), which is also the corresponding area code of the band's hometown, is quite a moody and surreal opening track and it certainly establishes the setting of and "out there" album with its howling screams and chugging background effect's to keep the suspense ticking over like a bomb waiting to go off at any second.
To snap you out of your perplexed trance, the bomb finally explodes as People= Sh*t immediately destroys you with an epic 30 second intro of crushing drumming from Joey Jordison, heavy riffs from Mick Thompson and Jim Root and raw growling from vocalist Corey Taylor; not forgetting the cool effects from Sid Wilson's turntables. At this point you know what you're in for the next 40 minutes or so.
Disasterpiece follows this with an instant earmarked classic on the album as it maintains an overall consistency of technically accurate instrument playing along with a true head banging section midway through the song.
My Plague is one of the more "mainstream" songs on the album used to lure more unsuspecting individuals to sample Slipknot, it was deemed quality enough to be featured on the Resident Evil soundtrack and it's a very catchy anthem. Corey Taylor's clean vocalised chorus is almost beautiful (the word pretty much being an oxymoron in conjunction with the album!) Yet despite its intended radio friendly appeal, it still maintains groovy bass playing from Paul Gray as well great dual guitar work.
If you wish to continue with this album then you'll love Everything Ends as it's profuse and utilises really deep guitar riffs with Corey Taylor's trademark growls interspersed between. Not a song you'd use to lullaby your kids to sleep with anyway.
8,7,6,6,6,5,4,3,2,1.....and cue the pulmonary embolism as your lungs will be gasping for air after another truly brutal fan favourite rocks your ears. I just can't put my finger on it but throughout the duration of this 4:14 song I still can't decipher the defining element that makes The Heretic Anthem so good and you know why? Because there isn't one and it would be a crime if there was only one. A memorable intro, a hardcore middle with more trademark can bashing from Clown with his trust baseball bat, heavy bass and a fitting outro to round off this window smashing tune.
It's taken till the 7th song but we finally have a restroom to stop off at to take a few minutes to cool down and recover. The song Gently is one of my unexpected favourites as you get sound effects from Craig's mixing board on a loop and notable percussion contributions from Chris Fehn and Shawn "Clown" Crahan. The sound is, for the majority, slower and sombre. It evolves into a more progressive song with increasing tempo and ferocity as all 9 members audibly uniting in the most experimental collaboration on the album.
Break time is over, put away the coffee flask as it's time to kick-start the album again with another radio-friendly track this time. Yet again though, like its fellow "mainstream" brother, Left Behind is a behemoth of a song and shouldn't be taken lightly. The opening riff is simply tantalising as it rips through the air with such force and power that the chord is instantly memorable. The theme isn't always clear when it comes to Slipknot, but when you find out that the theme revolves around the lead singer's period of homelessness it adds a greater emotional tie to it with the lyrics.
The fluctuating volume really does power The Shape. "Everything else is just DUST AND SOUND" as the song reaches this point you have a clear section to rinse and repeat because the combination of Jim/Mick's riff and the heavy percussion and drums is such a heavy and raw sound which is simply awesome.
I am Hated, in general, is quite similar sounding to The Shape with the exception being the heavier focus of Corey Taylor's rapping vocals; further establishing their status in the nu-metal genre.
The second weird and experimental song is Skin Ticket which is almost 7 minutes of sadistic vocals, a progressive tempo and is definitely percussion charged by Shawn and Chris.
DJ Sid Wilson helps introduce the New Abortion with some wobbling effects from his deck and the song as a whole is probably more of a filler; but still a good listen.
Metabolic also has that feeling of being a filler to stretch out the latter end of the album but I have a strong affiliation for this song. Whilst at times it sounds like a bit of a studio improve, it has notable bits. Such as the furious metal (as I like to call it) near the beginning of the song before it proceeds into a momentary head banging festival.
To cap off a very fine album we have the album's title song; Iowa. The 3rd atmospherically unsettling song on the album and at a lengthy 15 minutes it's here to chill out. From the haunting screams of a seemingly wasteland stricken Iowa loom to the endless percussion, you feel each of the 9 wants their input to be felt and they have emotion pouring out of them as they perform the song.
Iowa is very close to perfection as it achieves all the pre-set criteria of a solid metal album by having many memorable songs from Left Behind to My Plague to Everything Ends etc. It has weird and wonderfully experimental songs to fill the void of the "something different factor". Overall the album is a true gem and Slipknot are at their very best showing why the quite possibly are the best.