CD Review of All Hope Is Gone by Slipknot
Rock’s Scariest Nine-Piece Continue Their Quest for Credibility
Aug 31, 2008
Their third album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, was a career defining moment that saw the band mature and showed they could create well crafted pieces of music ranging from acoustic ballads to pop via their usual heavy metal antics.
Vol. 3 went a long way to restoring faith and credibility back into one of the decade’s most infamous groups and a fantastic return to form following the disappointing Iowa, so have they kept the winning formula for their fourth full length outing?
All Out Metal Assault
The tense opener, ‘.execute.’, sounds like someone tuning their radio into a Corey Taylor rant about modern society that ties in nicely into track two, ‘Gematria (The Killing Name)’. The latter sees Slipknot become the latest band to adopt the anti-US foreign policy theme and as an all out metal assault (coupled with shred guitar solos) is one of the better tracks on the album.
As the single ‘Psychosocial’ kicks in, with its unbelievably catchy chorus, every song on All Hope Is Gone has so far stuck to the band’s trademark sound of fast riffs, pounding drumbeats, strange samples and angry shouting. It’s not until ‘Dead Memories’, a grinding 90s Metallica type rocker, that they start to show a different side. That’s not a bad thing though, as the first half of the album is overly stronger.
Slipknot’s Heaviest Album to Date
More than ever the band wears their influences on their sleeve. The dirty riffage of ‘Wherein Lies Continue’ would be at home on Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’, the brooding ‘Gehenna’ resembles a bizarre hybrid of Korn and Queens of the Stone Age, but unsurprisingly it’s Pantera who get the most references (namely ‘Vendetta’, ’This Cold Black’).
It goes without saying that collectively this is Slipknot’s heaviest outing to date, Joey Jordison’s drumming in particular should come with a health warning of its own but unfortunately it’s not enough to lift ‘Butchers Hook’ or ‘This Cold Black’ above mediocrity.
However, once again it’s the softer side that sticks in your mind and demands repeated listens. ‘Snuff’ is perhaps the blandest, most straightforward song the band has ever recorded and that’s what makes it intriguing. The warm acoustic opening eventually builds into something resembling a stadium rock power ballad and contains some of Taylor’s most poignant lyrics to date.
Digipack Extras
The CD/DVD digipack Special Edition comes with three bonus tracks, including a somewhat pointless rockier remix of ‘Vermilion Pt. 2’ from Vol. 3, which continue much in the same tone as the rest of the album and a 35-minute documentary called ‘nine’ that charts the making of the album. Or at least that’s what it says on the CD case.
Although ‘nine’ does contain snippets from the studio of the (maskless) members recording their individual parts it all seems a little random and thrown together. Much like the DVD side of SOAD’s Dual Disc edition of Hypnotize it’s a little too arty and doesn’t really give an insight into the Slipknot creative process, something that would be truly interesting.
All Hope Is Gone?
While it would have been nice to hear them delve more into the experimental edge of the previous album and even though the second half is slightly weak, All Hope Is Gone still remains a good effort and shows that the band are still open to new ideas. All hope in Slipknot gone? Not a chance.
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