Heretic Anthems: The Case for Slipknot

I expect an uphill battle on this topic, especially given the audience.  Those of you who know me from my years on the air ('84-'99), advocating artists like Faust and hanging out with the likes of Jowe Head and La Monte Young, may assume that I've gone completely bonkers.  But in my pre-WFMU years, my taste was informed by a great many other things, like Black Sabbath's Master of Reality, the first Damned album, and "Pay to Cum."  Lovers of hard and heavy music everywhere ought to bypass pre-conceived notions of teenybopper "Nu Metal" in this case, as we all know labels are ultimately meaningless—when you hear it, you either like it or you don't.

Back in mid-2002, I rented the DVD of the movie Resident Evil. What stuck with me from my viewing experience (apart from Milla Jovovich – sigh), was a bonus music video for a song used in the film, by a band that I had always assumed to be a half-assed “rap rock” act ala Insane Clown Posse.  The song was “My Plague” by Slipknot:  great angry lyrics, monster riffs, horror-movie-style latex masks, a giant inverted pentagram backdrop, and fire.  I deemed the band worthy of further investigation (need it be said that I am also quite sympathetic to devilish, “Satanized” imagery?)

What can I say?  With no apologies to the underground musical elite, I became a fan.
Slipknot’s first 2 CDs spoke to the angry, frustrated adolescent in me, and helped me through a lousy time at a lousy job.  Their best songs are hooky anthems of limitless hatred and anger that embed themselves in your brain like a mighty dose of SSRIs.

Here are four big reasons why you should listen to Slipknot:

1. They’re hard. Really fuckin’ hard.  Harder than Dead Moon.  Harder than most Death Metal bands I can think of.  Though their second CD, Iowa, was a massive seller, it’s totally uncompromising and musically raw (though quite meticulously arranged; with nine members in the band, it would sound like a total mess were it not.)  Even Stevil of Amoeba Music in San Francisco, the man responsible for my introduction to the Black Metal genre, had to admit that Iowa was one of the hardest records he’d heard in long time.

2. They’re from Iowa.  Iowans are fuckin’ nuts.  Unique characters, to be sure.  Look at Bronwyn C.  Look at the band Stiff Legged Sheep.  Iowans are the Australians of America, if you follow.  They don’t fuck around.

3. The hip-hop posturing in Slipknot is thankfully minimal.  (Don’t let Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit spoil all these new metal bands for you.  In fact, the feud of words between Slipknot and Durst was highly publicized; apparently he referred to all their fans as “fat losers.”) I, for one, still squirm a little whenever any white person lays down the hippity-hop (Beastie Boys not withstanding); leave it to the men and women of color, I say.  Slipknot’s sound is more informed by Pantera or Dismember than Public Enemy or RUN-DMC.

4. I always like to say that a band is only as good as their drummer, and Joey Jordison is a highly evolved musician.  His approach incorporates thrash, punk, funk, metal, jazz and avant-garde, and the song arrangements clearly owe a lot to his innovation.  Joey sat in on drums for the recent US tour of Norwegian Black Metal legends Satyricon, if that tells you anything.  In addition, Slipknot has two other guys exclusively “punctuating” on vocals, drums and percussion – that’s three drummers, one more than the classic lineup of the Butthole Surfers.

Their third and latest disc, The Subliminal Verses, was produced by Rick Rubin, so obviously he thinks they’re OK (I assume ol’ zen master Rick need not take any jobs he doesn’t want.)  The disc includes some “mellower” numbers, and was a mild disappointment to some fans, though the harder tracks are still hard as hell.  But don’t start there; start with Iowa, or the first, self-titled disc.

If you’re not a convert after that, then you weren’t meant to be, perhaps too mired in European experimental brass ensembles, Jim O’Rourke productions, No Depression, EMO, or Auntie Jessup’s Back Porch 78s.

Related links-
Fansites:
http://www.angelfire.com/rock/liberate6my6madness/
http://www.black-goat.com/
Official:
http://www.slipknot1.com/

Comments

[just john]

I expected to like Slipknot.

But then I bought "Iowa" and fell asleep listening to it. It wasn't intentional, and I was playing it pretty loud. But I dozed right off.

[Krys O.]

How about Mudvayne? Only saw one video of theirs a couple of years ago but they were refreshingly good. And John, falling asleep to a record is ok as you absorb it into your brainpan subliminally. I listen to Diane Kamikaze's show on the way home from work on the bus and often nap to the thrash.

[WmMBerger]

I was at a party when I was 16 where the whole group (except for me; I'm a light sleeper) dozed off soundly to Master of Reality, which was playing quite loud. I think sometimes extremely loud, constant sounds have the effect of coccooning the mind, such that sleep is possible. (I wouldn't necessary blame the band/record for this phenomena.) I finally got up and took the record off. Not a single person even stirred.

[WmMBerger]

Hmmmm yes, Mudvayne. (I'm just confessing all over the place here!) "Nothing to Gein" is an amazing song, probably the best thing they've done. I also really like the End Of All Things To Come CD. They're more "technical" than Slipknot, kind of like Slipknot or Korn through a King Crimson filter.

[Suzy Damaged]

I once slept through a Foetus show.

Regarding ICP, watch the video for their cover of "Let's Go All the Way," then we can talk.

[nh dave]

There is a guy in my area that drives a beat up old american car and he has one of those huge juggalo stickers on the back of his window (thing is _HUGE_). For those not in the know, Juggalo's are the name for ICP fans or something just as crazy. Totally agree with you about the lets go all the way video... Just sad...

Can totally see falling asleep at a foetus show depending on the era of the show. I do miss some of his shows mid nineties at brownies and the like...

I really really want to like slipknot, but something just stops me from picking up any of their cd's at the local shop. I do like the masks however.

-Dave

[Adrian]

ICP happens to kick ass. I find them very amusing. If you don't like the rap, than leave it at that.

[JT]

ICP blows. Any Howard Stern listener knows what a bunch of frauds those dudes are. It's only liking rap that does make me hate Inane Cow Pussy.

Watch Buckethead's tribute to ODB here:
http://www.bucketheadland.com/odb/

Now tell me why ICP is allowed to exist when a guy who habitually wears a kentucky fried chicken bucket on his head can, uh, lip sync an Old Dirty Bastard track using a bunch of horror movie masks, poorly videotaped in his basement, and have it be so much cooler than the Slightly Pathological Harlequin Troupe.

[zedmaster]

I'm managing Yap, the former lead singer of British Rap Metal band One Minute Silence, who toured with Slipknot many times.

I just wanted to let you know that Yap has spent the past two years working on his new band which is called Pink Punk. The album, Zoo Politics, is now complete and is possibly one of the most powerful albums you will ever hear from a content point of view.

The Pink Punk web site is www.ppunk.com and you can download all the tracks there, read his blog and watch the trailer for the first video Yapolitical which is due out on a CMJ sampler in New York next week.

I'm doing a bit of grass roots promotion to get in touch with people like you who are connecting people together with a common cause, like us, and if you like the album I'd be grateful if you'd tell people about it through your blog or link to the pink punk site from your pages.

If you'd like to run any exclusive interviews or pictures email me and we can sort it out.

All the best,

Harry Leckstein
Pink Punk

[chaos_theories]

Intelligent Slipknot fans? This is new ... I have nothing against
Slipknot, but there aren't many of them. I was into them at about
16-17, but Corey Taylor just pissed me off after a while, much as
Jon Davis eventually ruined KoRn for me. Still credit to Slipknot
for the Subliminal Verses, there was some good songwriting there,
especially on Duality and the Vermillion songs. There were decent
songs on that record, and not just complex arrangements of angry,
fast noise. Iowa had that problem, although that had moments too.

They were decent at Big Day Out, though they did not play most of
their best material (My Plague for one) ... And for their vaunted
moshpit mayhem, I found the pit to be pissweak for the most part.

Mudvayne, however, are a class above, displaying technicality and
range to go with intelligent lyrics (if occasionally whiny), with
some awesome arrangements, and the most unique and dynamic rhythm
section since Tool and Pantera went big-time in the early 1990's.

Going to see them two nights in a row in February, should be mad.

As for ICP, they are posers, the Juggalo movement was a non-event
and Eminem made them look like bitches. Sure he had a pistol, but
did they do anything in return? Slim Anus? They aren't a patch on
even his worst material, and I'm hardly Eminem's biggest fanatic.

They should have stuck to wrestling, which they sucked at too ...

[go away all of you]

yeah but you all forgot one thing... talent... slipknot has it others don't. Mudvaynes sad reliance on "technical things" proves my point. And nobody that would call themselves insane clown pose deserves to live!

[lost calibured]

haha all of you listen to that crap... what happened to Justin timberlake? Britney spears? you know all the greats.

[gus]

i just wanted to reiterate what harry from freeport said about pink punk.

anyone who likes to be challenged when listening to music should really check these guys out www.ppunk.com yap, although sheding his former metal roots has breathed a breath of fresh air into a wild mix of styles that really defies classification.

if you like intelligent anger this is for you.
if you like true politics this is for you.
if you like hard edged rap this is for you.
if you are an open minded metal head this is for you.

basically this project has something for everyone. just take the time to give it a listen and be prepared to be stunned, enthused, challenged, enlightened and basically given a major motivational boot up the backside. you need go no further than pink punk.

all this and more awaits.

zoo politics.

available now.

[IOWA CHAMPION]

I think you are incorrect about Stiff Legged Sheep members in Thinking Fellers. Certainly non of them "went on to form them". Thinking fellers were actually playing around Iowa City before they moved to SF.

There were lots of bands around Iowa that sounded sorta like Slip Knot in the mid eighties. We had a special name for it "pig F-ing music". It was the asthetic equivilent of licking pavement. Die Kreuzen and very early Tar Babies fall into the same category. I don't know the Slip Knots, but they must be aware. I would be very surprised.

[WmMBerger]

Hey Champ, you're absolutely right about SLS...my friend Matt Hall was in the band, and was very, very chummy with the Fellers, though no personnel connections exist between the 2 bands. I was historically confused at the moment of writing (so rare in the blogosphere!), and have changed the post to exclude the misstatement.

If you don't like "the Slip Knots," that's just fine, lots of people don't. They've still put Iowa on the Metal map, despite the naysayers and their involvement in the "pig-fucking" sub-genre. Thanks for your negative contribution!

[shittt]

fuk u i hate u - i hate every1 Xept slipknot
everyone = fukin' retarded shittttt

[BunnyV13]

Hmm probably abit late to post all this, but ima say what i wanna say anyways. I love Slipknot, I have the tribal S tattoo. I love Mudvayne also, and Insane Clown Posse kick ass, im getting the hatchet man tattoo next.
I just dont see why people need to belittle bands and groups because of the appearence and the actual music. I admire ICP for they have started something, which in some cases has not been done before. I love all three cuz the music rules, the way the people in the groups rule and they just fucking kick ass. End of!

Just tips to all of ya'll, read into and search into the whole juggalo, juggalette way, it really is quite a nice idea, family and such, and after you have read and learned and you still hate fuck off then, carnival aint for everyone!