Ramble-Review: Slipknot 1999-2001

Overview

Hey y'all, I'm back from the dead with a new blog post. I recently listened to every studio Slipknot album from their first to their most recent in order of release and have had the itching to talk about it. I decided to format this post as a sort of ramble-review (a trademark for me perhaps). I will go through each album in release order and talk about what I liked, what I didn’t, and some stand outs. Let’s get this party started.

Slipknot: Here Comes The Pain

The first studio album by Slipknot was released in 1999 and is an explosion of anger, guitar riffs, and fast paced screams. The album opens with an intro track, something the band would do on almost all their subsequent albums. For my first listen through of the entire album, I listened to the 10th anniversary edition from 2009. This version includes a couple extra tracks as well as some remixes and demos. I really enjoyed this album and it had the most songs on it that I already knew. It is also pretty much the only album to feature Corey Taylor actually rapping. While those moments are often looked back on as kind of cringey by fans, I thought they were pretty interesting and added some good dynamics. One of Slipknot’s trademarks is their incredibly fast screams that almost sound like rapping. This technique is used a lot on the album, lending it that distinctly nu-metal feel that they would slowly drift away from. 

Standouts

Eyeless

The second non-intro track on the album, Eyeless was also the first Slipknot song I grew super attached to. It’s an incredibly aggressive track and it grooves incredibly hard. The song begins with the iconic “Insane, am I the only motherfucker with a brain?” which sets the aggressive tone of the album incredibly well. The song’s chorus is screamed in a kind of SOAD type fun strained voice. The song also features occasional clean vocals which I always adore in heavier songs as I feel like it adds so much dimension to the song. 

Favorite lyric: “I am my father's son 'cause he's a phantom, a mystery, and that leaves me nothing!”

Wait and Bleed

Right after Eyeless, Wait and Bleed starts with clean vocals, which immediately sets it apart from the previous track. Corey’s vocal performance on the chorus that starts the song is absolutely beautiful and it proves how much range he has as a vocalist. The song does also have plenty of screaming in the verses and also shows how fast Corey can switch from clean to scream which is not easy. The song is another one that I knew before the album, but it stayed in my top few after listening as it’s catchy without losing the aggression.

Favorite lyric: “Everything is 3-D blasphemy”

Scissors

The penultimate track on the original album, Scissors starts with a strange percussion section and builds up to a frenzy of sound before cutting back down. The first vocals on the song are whispered and accented with instrumental bursts. The whispering has this quality of barely restrained rage that I absolutely adore, and when it builds into actual screams it's so satisfying. The song is also a long one, as opposed to the last two, coming in at a bit over 8 minutes. It is a great example of the insanity that Slipknot can get up to when given a longer runtime for a song, as it constantly alternates between soft and hard. Another aspect of the song I love is that there's a long section of Corey screaming “Biding my time until the time is right” and then the song ends with the thematic lyric “it is time” repeated over and over. 

Favorite lyric: “I play doctor for five minutes flat, before I cut my heart open and let the air out”

Me Inside

A track only on the anniversary version of the album, Me Inside is, in my opinion, an under appreciated gem. The first verse’s soft almost rapping going into screaming and then into a higher clean vocal section for the chorus makes the song unsettling in a similar way to Scissors despite it having a quarter of the runtime. It’s a song I revisited several times after listening to the album because It just scratched a itch for me and I highly recommend checking it out. 

Favorite lyric: “Too far gone, Im catatonic/Leaving you to criticize/Empty shell and running naked/All alone... lobotomized”

Iowa: Pain Intensified

Slipknot’s second studio album would become a paramount of their work. Serving as an even heavier and more aggressive sequel to their first album, Iowa is often the album that older Slipknot fans will point at and say “why don’t you make something like this again?” After an unsettling intro of screaming over a strange instrumental, the album lets you know exactly where it stands with the first full song being titled “People = Shit.” Released two years after their last album in 2001, Iowa is a masterpiece, and is often treated as their best album, though as redditer’s will tell you, it can be switched with their first. 

Standouts

Disasterpiece

Disasterpiece, just like Eyeless, is the second full song on this album. It has Corey screaming in various tones about how much the world, and someone in particular, angers him. As the chorus says disgustedly “Noises, noises, people make noises/People make noises when they're sick.” This song has very little clean vocals but it grooves so hard you’re glad for it. It doesn’t let up until the bridge where Corey softly sings “I'm gone, goodbye, it's so depressing” with his voice sounding so broken and sad right before the song picks up steam again. 

Favorite lyric: “I wanna slit your throat and fuck the wound/Wanna push my face in and feel the swoon/Wanna dig inside, find a little bit of me/'Cause the line gets crossed when you don't come clean”

Everything Ends

Another song I love with almost rapped vocals, Everything Ends balances the clean vocals and harsh vocals perfectly. According to Corey Taylor himself the song is about the last time he attempted suicide. It perfectly encapsulates this feeling of hating yourself and wanting things to end, but it’s placement towards the beginning of the album allows the rest of the songs to prove that they are still here and alive.

Favorite lyric: “Shallow skin, I can paint with pain/I mark the trails on my arms with your disdain/Everyday it's the same I love, you hate/But I guess I don't care any more”

The Heretic Anthem

One of my absolute favorite very heavy slipknot songs, The Heretic Anthem is a fun burst of energy that keeps up the aggression but it has more externalized hatred rather than the internalized hate of Everything Ends. The song was the first single for the album and was created as an “anti-single,” which absolutely shows. The song was made as a big fuck you to the people telling them they needed a radio friendly song. It goes incredibly hard when angry. 

Favorite lyric: “If you’re 555, then I’m 666, what’s it like to be a heretic”

Skin Ticket

For a song that starts with clean vocals, Skin Ticket is still just as heavy. The soft whispered singing slowly builds up and cuts back over and over. The song is another underrated song in my opinion as it goes incredibly hard while still having clean vocals. Songs with strong dynamics are always my favorites because the softness always makes the heavy heavier. 

Favorite lyric: “Come see my cage, built in my grain/Come see my cage, built-in migraine”

Tune in next time for the next two albums!