Slipknot (Limited Edition) [Digipak] - Slipknot

2001 was the year that Slipknot appeared on the scene with their self titled début album. It contains fourteen tracks and with this album the band established themselves as one of the leading names in the Nu Metal scene. They were always a little heavier than the other Nu Metal bands that were about back then and it was this that gave them the edge over their contemporaries, their ridiculous masks furthered their appeal and helped them to stand out. ...
...The début album from Slipknot clocks in at just over an hour in length and throughout this hour of music there are a number of brilliant tracks that the band have to offer us. The album begins well with the track '742617000027' and from here on in it is just one full on assault from the band as they smash their way through this album with great venom and fury. The music is fast and frantic, the drum beats are always excellent, but the vocals are ... more

2001 was the year that Slipknot appeared on the scene with their self titled début album. It contains fourteen tracks and with this album the band established themselves as one of the leading names in the Nu Metal scene. They were always a little heavier than the other Nu Metal bands that were about back then and it was this that gave them the edge over their contemporaries, their ridiculous masks furthered their appeal and helped them to stand out. Masks are hardly the most original of things, but many seemed fascinated by the bands use of masks and it was this I feel that allowed the band to build a big following for themselves, a following that they maintained through explosive and always entertaining live shows.

The début album from Slipknot clocks in at just over an hour in length and throughout this hour of music there are a number of brilliant tracks that the band have to offer us. The album begins well with the track '742617000027' and from here on in it is just one full on assault from the band as they smash their way through this album with great venom and fury. The music is fast and frantic, the drum beats are always excellent, but the vocals are at times really quite laughable. Those not in the know always seem to see Slipknot as quite an extreme band, but in truth this is not really the case at all. Their music combines elements of alternative metal, rap metal, and hip-hop, sometimes to disastrous effect and other times the music that is created is absolutely excellent.

'Wait and Bleed' is without doubt my favourite track from this album, it is an absolutely excellent display of Nu Metal from Slipknot and is one track from this release that never fails to impress me. I love the way that this track progresses, there is not one moment of weakness here and always all elements of the music come across well. With this being their début album and all, the music of Slipknot was not always particularly great here and often mistakes are made but this is one such example of a track where no mistakes are made whatsoever. Other tracks that impress here are 'No Life', 'Spit it Out', and 'Tattered & Torn'; all three of these are brilliant and I loved them all back when this album was first released. The music of Slipknot is greatly aggressive and it is this that makes their music so great to listen to, they were part of the Nu Metal scene and yet their music is so much more raw than many of the other bands that were a part of this scene. The genre of Nu Metal died long ago as did many of the bands that were considered to be a part of that scene, Slipknot however were always one of the leading names and remain as one of the few true survivors also.

In 2001 'Slipknot' was probably one of my favourite albums, rap metal was still considered to be quite cool, and seemingly everyone owned a skateboard, a black hoodie, and a hugely baggy pair of jeans. A lot has changed since then, the world has moved on and few still listen to Nu Metal music. This is no longer one of my favourite albums but I still believe that this is a decent offering from the band and is an album that I do in fact listen to from time to time, admittedly extremely sporadically. This album is greatly energetic and is a perfect album for people just getting into metal music, it's softer than a lot of true metal bands out there but then again it is a lot heavier than most of the Nu Metal rubbish that was extremely popular back in the early 2000s. I would definitely recommend this, it's not the best album in the world but it's certainly not one of the worst.

The digipak edition of this album comes complete with a cardboard case rather than a standard plastic CD casing. I personally am a huge fan of digipak editions of albums and therefore tend to buy them whenever possible. There's something greatly appealing to me about the cardboard digipak casing of this 'Slipknot' album, for most however it's probably just as good to own a copy in the standard case. It really makes little difference, the tracks are all the same so the difference here is purely aesthetic. Whether buying the digipak edition or standard plastic cased 'Slipknot' album though, this is without doubt an album that I personally would strongly recommend. 

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