Upper midwest horror movie addicts get together and form a posse and
release Slipknot (Roadrunner, 1999), which has a great first half but
underwhelming second. Highlights include Surfacing, Eyeless and (sic).

Your first thought looking at photo shoots with Slipknot or debut album
cover is probably "that's a whole lot of members". 9 dudes and you can
hardly tell, save for the two drummers, who add a unique texture despite
their concealed skill. Iowa (Roadrunner, 2001) has too much pop
sensibility to experiment with time signatures, so their job is to just flood
the mix with as many drum fills as they can memorize and increase anxiety
of listeners.

Nu Metal was facing a bleak future at this time, propelled by
superstars like Durst, Linkin Park and Korn. This album tries to brutalize
the genre's state at the time. At this point, Corey Taylor's wide range made
most metal singers seem monotone in comparison, occasionally bordering on
extreme metal with a couple clean parts too on My Plague and Left Behind.

Their hesitation invoking deterrent nature makes it hard to take this work seriously
with the unadulterated misanthropy and irony poisoned lyrics of People = Shit
and unsettling backstory about Corey slitting his wrists in the booth recording
the closing track. The Heretic Anthem is plain anti-christian sentiment with a
decent bridge taking an interesting direction. The clean vocals on Left Behind
are great during the bridge. My Plague takes the formula that worked on
Wait and Bleed and added heavier production, tighter riffs and quality guitar equalizing.
Everything Ends adds more edginess, memorable licks and DJ cuts. Listeners are given
a break from the insanity on Gently, a slow jam with a dark atmosphere.

Skin Ticket is
by far the strangest track and ends amazingly in such a Ross Robinson fashion with a
distortion loop and noisy bass. New Abortion has some creative riff ideas and
emotional singing. Metabolic is a quintessential contribution to Nu Metal,
captivating from start to finish.

After starting a Post-Grunge side-project "Stone Sour", Corey Taylor brings some
variety to the table on Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) (Roadrunner, 2004). Still
mostly heavy shenanigans predictable from these guys, only with some softer cuts
like Danger - Keep Away, Vermilion, Pt. 2 and Circle. The hit songs are pretty
catchy but there's an undeniable presence of filler here probably due to post-Iowa
exhaustion. All Hope is Gone (Roadrunner, 2008) sees Slipknot getting comfortable
as a brand name instead of an actual band. .5: The Gray Chapter (Roadrunner, 2014)
is a confusingly bland mess. We Are Not Your Kind (Roadrunner, 2019) shows
an unrewarding yet promising direction for the band's future, only to be squashed
on The End, So Far (Roadrunner, 2022), which is a return to form without any payoff.