"F-ck it all. F-ck this world. F-ck everything that you stand for. Don't belong, don't exist, don't give a sh-t! Don't ever judge me." This is the proclamation on the back of the Slipknot CD booklet. One can only assume that this sentiment is the result of too much Korn influence and an unmonitored upbringing in Des Moines, Iowa, where the nine (!) members of Slipknot formed.
Composed of a singer, bassist, two guitarists (playing largely the same parts doubled), two percussionists (can YOU hear them?), a drummer (with a set, sitting down, you know), a DJ, and Craig-- the "sampler," -- one wonders who is gonna get their walking papers now that the record is hitting the charts and the loot needs to be split up. The turntable and the sampling duties could probably be rolled into one, and I can't hear the percussionists, except in the intros where the drummer Joey (first names only, man) isn't playing, so I'm thinking those cats might wanna look into legal counsel sooner rather than later.
The band as a whole sports a clown/freak/monster mask visual motif that would surely please John Wayne Gacy, and as we all know, mentally disturbed clowns (or just the Insane Clown Posse) are "in." All of which is not to belittle Slipknot, who, stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing (seemingly) but Korn, industrial underground, and hardcore rap to listen to (either by happenstance or choice), have come up with a sound that is, all things considered given this day and age, pretty original. Corey's vocal approach, alternating between melodic (sort of) choruses (especially on the single, "Wait And Bleed"), whispered/moaned pre-choruses, and flat-out distorted hollering, is pure Jonathan Davis, replicated faithfully thanks to Korn producer Ross Robinson at the board.
Still, one vocalist coming up with three separate (if borrowed) moves is pretty respectable, especially when stacked up against the contributions of the eight instrumentalists. Just trying to help out, given that a quarterly earnings meeting is bound to be coming up soon. Not to downplay the instrumentalists, the whirlwind of sound they get going on "Tattered and Torn" is pretty remarkable, with creepy loops, heavy bass grooves, down-tuned guitar riffs, and explosive drumming combining to make what is at once a hypnotic yet unnerving groove.
"Purity" may seem particularly Korn-like, but given the freshness of Korn's approach, how out of the blue it was, it's OK to rip it off a bit, throw a few of your own spins into it. The result is you can still come off as pretty original, and that's as legitimate a move as the Beatles-derived music of Badfinger, the Stones-derived music of the Faces, or the Clash-derived music of Rancid (OK, I take back the last one.). The album tracks flow together, somewhere between "megamix" and Sgt. Pepper, creating a kind of audio-verite that is somewhat spellbinding in a destroy-everything kind of way. Oh, and don't miss the bonus track for a clue to what the end of time might sound like, provided that Armageddon is set to take place in South Park.
All recordings written by M. S. Crahan, P. Gray, N. Jordison and C. Taylor, courtesy of Roadrunner Records and EMI April Music, Inc./Music That Music (ASCAP).
