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Slipknot: Vol 3 (the subliminal verses)

15/05/04 || Lord K Philipson

I understand why people take interest in Slipknot. Initially, they brought something along the lines of fresh air into the scene. That was a few years ago. Before they really got their break, it was all cool to listen to the 9 masked men… It’s cool as long as they don’t sell alot of records. You know how the talk goes today; they suck more than any other band in the world, they are right up there with the Nu-Metal heroes Linkin Park, they are sell-outs etc etc etfuckencetera. Still, each and every one of these people who badmouth them will make sure they get to hear this latest effort as soon as possible, no matter if they claim different. Everyone will hear this album, everyone is interested in what they have come up with this time. And after that, all possible metal-forums on the Internet will be flooded with the same old bullshit from the cocksucking soooooooo true 15 year old kids. Again. I wish nothing but incurable diseases on yer cocks, children.

I was impressed with the “debut” (I’m not counting “Mate, Kill, Feed, Repeat” as their debut, coz no one else is)at the time, and never had many complaints about Slipknot. I liked the rawness they displayed, along with the catchy riffs and sing-along choruses. Two things that always did put me off though are the following;

1. All the fillers. You know, the 5-10 minute tracks that solely consists of weird sounds and shit. Those never had much of a purpose for me. It always felt like they were included just to make the album in question longer. Before I got to hear this album I hoped they would have dropped that cacophony-crap all together and concentrated on writing actual songs. They got better on this part anyways, even if “The virus of life” feels like one of those songs.

2. The semi-rapping vocals. Before I got to hear this album I hoped they would have dropped that rap-crap almost all together and concentrated on writing actual rap-less songs. Talk about having a deja-vu thing here… I never minded the clean vocals of Corey though, I think he has a good voice. It’s just the rapping I’m not the worlds’ biggest fucken fan of.

The first 2 songs I got to hear from this piece was “Pulse of the maggots” and “Duality”, pretty much like the rest of you. I wasn’t too excited over those two tracks to be perfectly honest. Especially the verse-vocals of “Pulse of the maggots” made me wonder if Corey really had fucken lost it. However, those rapping-parts are a quite big part of what Slipknot is about, I know that, but this time around Corey gives me Clawfinger-vocalist Zak Tell-vibes at times, and that is definitely not a good thing and more so not what I had hoped for, to put it nicely. Slipknot is better than that.
Or are they?

Well, the promo of “Vol. 3” has been here at my place for a few days now and l have listened through it more than a bunch of times. So, what’s new this time then? Not much. Acoustic guitars is one thing though. I can’t recall I ever heard acoustic guitars in Slipknot before. It doesn’t do much for me though as I’m soooooo fucken metal you know. I’m about to post how much I hate Slipknot on various metal-forums already…

Die.

Those acoustic guitar-based songs don’t feel very Slipknot to me. They’d be better off on Coreys’ and Jims’ Stone Sour thing. The tunes themselves are not bad, they just feel out of place.

As for the material… Alot of stuff on this album feels very repetitive to say the least. Alot of the vocal-lines are complete rip-off’s of stuff they have done in the past. That doesn’t impress me very much. A little more imagination behind the masks in this department wouldn’t fucken hurt. Another thing that comes to mind as well after a first listen is that Slipknot definitely went in a more radio-friendly way than before. Then again, they always had their fair share of hit-shit, made for radio (“Wait and Bleed” among others), it’s just more of it this time around. The input of brutality is still there, just not to the same extent as before. While talking about “before”, let’s talk a little about the song “Before I forget”, before I forget, ok? Jesus fuck, I’m the wittiest of them all. Hooray for me! I rule! Actually, let’s not talk about that song, I just wanted to get that funny-as-cancer-line in there.

Die again.

Anyways… I have to put in a few words about the production before I continue to rant away about whatever bullshit comes to mind. I love how this album sounds. It’s crystal-clear. Seems like they have put some more thought into the percussion-stuff this time, as you can actually hear them hits perfectly, which exactly wasn’t the case all the time in the past. Joeys’ drum sound is excellent. I have no idea if they use triggers or not, but it sure as hell sounds all fucken acoustic to me. If I was to record another album tomorrow, this is the drum sound I want. And if I can’t use Tobben of Vomitory to play them, Joey would be more than welcome to kill them skins for me. Not only is he a nice fella who got me a few drinks backstage in Stockholm after the gig (one of all the reasons you all want to be me), he’s one of the more interesting drummers of today as well. The guitar sound is nothing special though. Slipknot never had a characteristic guitar sound, like Entombed did in the past for example. They are distorted and they they sound metal enough, but it’s just not anything revolutionary. The bass is there, no Korn-bass for these fuckers. Just a warm bass sound to add depth to the whole thing. Without a doubt, this is one of the better productions I have heard in a long time.

So now you know that the production itself is excellent, right? Now let’s see if I remember where we were as far as the material goes… Well, after having heard this album over a dozen times, I’m still as convinced about that fact that there’s no hit-track like “People = Shit” as I was after my first listen.There are hooks here and there, sure, but nothing really stands out like the above-mentioned track. We have some semi-fast blastbeats in “Three Nil”, at least that counts for something. “Duality” has actually grown to be one of the better tracks with its close-to-out-of-key vocals in the intro, which I never thought after hearing it the first time, but that might just explain the weakness of the rest of the album? “Opium of the people” displays some talent of guitarists Mick and Jim, who knew they could actually play that good? Well, I did, they showed some of that on the “Mate, Kill, Feed, Repeat” album already.

(Edit by the Lord – This following comment was mailed to us some days ago and we thank “Spillher” for knowing shit. It’s not like we care about doing research, we just put in what we feel like you know. That’s more fun. We were about to say that James Hetfield played all the solos, but we thought people wouldn’t believe us… Anyways, The Smart-o Award of the Week goes to this gal and this is what she said: “Do some “fucken” research – neither Mick Thomson nor Jim Root were in the band when the “Mate, Feed, Kill, Repeat” album was recorded. That, and I wanted to tell you I love you from the bottom of my Slipknot-loathing substitute for a heart.”)

I love you right back, baby.

Onwards.

“Circle” is one of the acoustic-based tracks. Only good thing in this track is the ending which has a DJ Shadow-feel over it, and that can never be bad. “Welcome” holds those Zak Tell-reminding rap-vocals and I feel like punching someones’ lights out thanx to that. You know pretty much what this album sounds like without hearing it, I’m sure. Apart from the acoustic guitars, as mentioned a million times already, it’s pretty much the well-known Slipknot-sound all the way. I just hoped for it to be more brutal, not the other way around.

If you dug them before, you’ll continue to dig them with this album.

Remind me to never be this serious in a review, ever, again. I think this took me an hour or 5 to complete. I should just re-write the Aurora Borealis review to lighten things up. Those reviews gets written as fast as Aurora Borealis write music. In 3 seconds. Excellent, I got to bash Aurora Borealis again. I truly am the fucken King.

6/10.

Did you know that “mask” in Swedish means “worm”? Corey’s got a worm in his face. Haha, that’s so funny. Die.

Information
Released: 2004
Label: Roadrunner Records
Website: www.slipknot1.com
Band
Sid Wilson: dj
Joey Jordison: drums
Paul Gray: bass
Chris Fehn: percussion
Jim Root: guitars
Craig Jones: samples
Shawn Crahan: percussion
Mick Thompson: guitars
Corey Taylor: vocals

Tracklist
01. Prelude 3.0
02. Pulse of the Maggots
03. Blister Exists
04. Three Nil
05. Duality
06. Opium of the People
07. Vermillion
08. Welcome
09. Circle
10. Don’t Get Close
11. Before I Forget
12. Nameless
13. Vermillion, Pt. 2
14. Virus of Life
15. Danger, Keep Away

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