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.

'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.

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.