Iowa is, in the world of nu-metal, probably the most anticipated album of the entire year. Slipknot’s second, self-titled album, released in 1999 was a huge success and an important moment in rock history. This is not because of Slipknot’s apparently shocking stage behaviour, involving the smelling of decomposing birds to induce vomiting, the punching of their own fans, the coin toss to decide whether the clown mask or the gas mask gets a punch in the face, having more fights with each other than the Gallaghers etc. Slipknot’s live shows are like a circus to behold, only with more headbanging, fighting and faeces throwing, but they sound absolutely dire. Corey, understandably, finds it difficult to scream at the top of his lungs when he’s busy using them to jump as high as he can, and as a result, constantly sounds very tired. The songs are played so loud that the band can’t follow each other (demonstrated at Reading 2000, when they were the only band to break the noise boundaries, the rebels). In the studio, however, Slipknot sound amazing. When carefully produced, Corey sounds extremely passionate, with a heavier voice than most black metal singers, the twin guitars and bass pump out ferocious, if less than technical riffs, the three drumkits add very easy-to-mosh-to rhythms and the scratches and samples give the whole thing a more youthful feel. The result sounds like a more accessible take on some darker aspects of metal (double bass drum rushes for example), which bands like Korn and Bizkit wouldn’t touch. Which brings us to the present. Iowa.
Iowa is where the band grew up and handily doubles up as their idea of hell. It’s easier to write about hell when you’ve been (Eh, Slayer?), so you’d think this would be another great album. Kerrang called Iowa the best thing to happen to heavy music this year. Producer Ross Robinson said that it resembled death metal. Corey said to expect blastbeats, grindcore and lots of black metal sickness. All were wrong. Here’s the track by track:

2. People = S**t- We’ve all seen the t-shirts, we all know that this is Slipknot’s very simplified outlook on life. So how does the ideology sound? This is likely to become Slipknot’s new anthem after ‘Surfacing’ last year. Opening with furious Deicide-esque bass drum growl rushes and guitar stabs, before erupting into a cheesy scratch-driven groove, the first lyric ‘Here we go again, motherf**kers!’ kicks in. Furious rap verses fill the track till the fantastic ‘People=S**t’ chorus takes hold. All in all a very energetic and anthemic intro, with at least three of the band providing vocals. This trend continues throughout, making choruses a lot stronger. Sounds nothing like death metal, mind.

4. My Plague- Opening with promising alternating guitars with down and dirty rap and drum‘n’bass percussion, the song loses itself with it’s dull, melodic chorus. Unmistakably this is singing for the sales, no matter what anyone says. The band boasted that no songs here are MTV friendly, but cut out a few cuss words here and there and several are. Another frustrating aspect here is the lyrics. Some of the language betrays a high level of intelligence, but far too many Durstisms are flung in for good measure. STOP IT! Strangely though, Corey breaks the rap-metal rules by the use of something most rappers are incapable of: self-deprecation. ‘I’m just a bastard, but at least I admit it’ is the most startling example.

6. The Heretic Song- What sounds like a Pac-Man machine counting down is interrupted by immensely crunchy guitar in either ear, followed by a huge roar. Another song which is punk at heart, with a very catchy chorus (‘If you’re 555, I’m 666’), the amount of bass drum running through this song makes it sound even heavier than ‘sic’ on the last album. Almost good enough to make up for the picture of a goat foetus on the inside artwork.

8. Left Behind- The first single, and a relatively tame offering. Plenty of singing, but without the annoying melodrama. This simply sounds like a good rock song; with no one feeling the compulsion to go overboard. This is probably Slipknot’s finest pop song to date and may become their most successful if correctly marketed.

10. I am Hated- A very old-metal intro bursts into double track raps about more familiar circumstances (‘My life was always s**t etc’). This steams along but lacks the magic of rap driven songs like ‘Spit it Out’ to do anything special. Soon to be used in a remake of the film ‘Rollerball’ (seriously).

12. New Abortion- So are they for or against it? Judging from this, Slipknot are against the existence of embryos, despite at least one of them being a father. Never mind, the song is another rap one, with lyrics comparing the unborn to cysts and sores, pointlessly. Although one of the most marketed, this is probably one of the weaker songs, lacking any sort of structure, except for the occasional sing song and the repetition of ‘You can’t take my soul away from me’ (All of a sudden, Slipknot believe in souls?).

14. Iowa- Formerly called ‘Killers are Quiet’ in it’s ‘Mate Feed Kill Repeat’ days, the lyrics have been changed to be about the torturing and killing of little kids with bleach and burial. Basically this is the ‘Scissors’ of the album. Opening with distant screams and creaking, the familiar slow drums and bassline march in. This song has really benefited from Robinson’s Midas touch, as have all before it. As things build, Corey breathes into our ears for a while, before screaming down them. The dark, almost chanted lyrics are Slipknot’s blackest to date (this has put me off going to Iowa for life by the way). The build-ups take forever to go anywhere but, in this case, it is effective torture through repetition. There appears to be a lot of backward masking on the track, but I’ll decipher that later. Corey almost cries through the lyrics by the climax of the song, but things never reach the same level as the gruesome end to ‘Scissors’. Altogether, although extremely dark, the album’s finale is a slight let down.