Rock Euphoria

For an album titled All Hope Is Gone, Slipknot’s latest is the very antithesis of its moniker. The nine-piece Iowa band were branded as The Great Metal Hope having lodged themselves for the first time at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200. Keep in mind, this is not just the Top 200 Metal or Hard Rock albums, but the Top 200 for all albums, regardless of genre.

Slipknot stayed in the top slot for two weeks, beating out rapper The Game’s highly anticipated LAX in a well-publicized battle with metal emerging victorious.

One of the few still-successful acts of the mid- to-late ’90s “nu metal” scene, Slipknot’s last full-length album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, met with critical praise but wasn’t as well-received by fans. Considered to have “gone soft” on their last outing, Slipknot’s previous offering could hardly have been mistaken for a Kenny G album. Nevertheless, fans were disappointed with tracks like the two-part ballad, “Vermillion”, and what sounded like too many cast-offs from Corey Taylor’s side project, Stone Sour. The general consensus spoke of a detectable lack of unity among band members who were knee-deep in solo projects or personal problems, so much so that The Subliminal Verses didn’t really feel like the ‘Knot fans knew and loved.

Then again, with nine guys in the band, let’s see you try staying on the same page as the other eight.

Heralded as a return to form by die-hard maggots, the Slipknot’s fourth studio album All Hope Is Gone showcases and improves upon their distinctive sound. They haven’t dropped the nu-metal banner, but rather, updated the formula.

The dual-guitar arrangements by Jim Root and Mick Thompson (numbers 4 and 9, respectively) — are a combination of precision and distortion. While a two-headed guitar monster isn’t so much of an anomaly amongst many bands, having two percussionists is. Slipknot boasts two drummers with the legendary Joey Jordison commanding the drum throne and custom percussionist Chris Fehn rounding out the band’s sound. Sid Wilson — alias, DJ Starscream — contributes the signature samples and scratches that are a major fixture of Slipknot’s sound. You know a Sid sample when you hear it.

All of these elements, plus the efforts contributed by the rest of the band’s members, culminate in what fans and critics are recognizing as Slipknot’s best album yet. Slipknot once again is operating as a finely tuned, masked machine and all is (not) right with the world!

True to its title, All Hope is Gone is the sonic equivalent of the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Despair, and (grudging, vengeance-tinged) Acceptance — each song representing one or more of these conditions.

The disc’s intro “.execute” builds the anticipation with a cacophony of sounds building to a crescendo and bursting forth into “Gematria (The Killing Name)”. Right out of the gate, Slipknot shows their experimental direction with the track’s shifts in sound and atmosphere. It’s not a far cry from early Slipknot, but there is definite growth and musical maturity throughout.

“Psychosocial” is a weird juxtaposition of thrash riffs, melody, and atmospheric samples — perhaps one of the heaviest tracks on the album. Following in a similar, uber-heavy vein, “Butcher’s Hook” is overrun with growling vocals (that, admittedly, become somewhat tedious after awhile) on the verses, but saves itself from becoming too one-note with a much more melodic vocal style inter-spliced on the chorus.

“Snuff,” the disc’s ballad, is much more epic and ambitious in scope than any other attempt at a Slipknot “love song” (Perish the thought!) to date. Corey Taylor gets an opportunity to showcase the more melodic, emotive side of his vocal abilities, usually reserved for Stone Sour outtings. Joey Jordison, usually known for his powerhouse drumming still manages to keep his distinctive style, even when he’s out of his natural habitat.

Packed with unexpected flourishes, All Hope Is Gone finds itself shot through with moments that burrow inside the sonic consciousness of fans — like the stormtrooper’s march of drumbeats on a breakdown in “Sulpher” and the winding groove “Gehenna” is built around.

In light of the recent economic downturn, the title track on All Hope is Gone seems oddly prophetic. With lines like “The Bill of Rights is a bill of sale / What will you do when the war is over? / What will you do when your systems fail”, vocalist and chief lyricist Corey Taylor paints a bleak picture of a world hinging on collapse

Like a lot of bands who have stood the test of time, Slipknot has shown growth with a willingness for experimentation while still bearing in mind what brought them to the dance in the first place.