Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind
(Roadrunner)
Reviewed by Onyx Bates.
They are a band that have existed for almost the last three decades, and today they dropped their highly anticipated sixth studio album on the salivating masses – many who have been scratching at the door to hear it ever since the group stated that not only would the record push boundaries, but that it would see them deliver something far heavier than anything they ever had before.
If Slipknot wanted their maggots chomping at the bit – this was certainly the way to do it.
New masks, new album, a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live; for Slipknot – according to Corey Taylor – the band have finally reached the point that they have always wanted to. By writing music for the group first and the audience second, Slipknot has been allowed to truly immerse themselves within those sunken places that they have previously only hinted at, and they are ominous locales indeed both musically and especially lyrically. Experimenting with their sound but without discarding the essence of who they truly are (and thus alienating their core fans) Slipknot deliver an album that is unapologetic in it’s honesty and unrelenting in its brutality. Their live shows are bigger, incorporating multi-media elements such as video and pyrotechnics, the element of fire a theme found throughout their latest transition. Indeed, their headline slot at Download Festival earlier this year was hailed as a triumph by several critics, their sheer tenacity earning the crowds respect even when they didn’t hit the mark one hundred percent of the time.
We Are Not Your Kind is also a deeply personal album, not only for Taylor whose own internal conflicts have undoubtedly shaped much of the material but for Slipknot as a whole. Let’s face it, they have certainly had to tackle their fair share of tragedy and turmoil over the last few years; from the death of Paul Gray to the departure of both Joey Jordison and more shockingly Chris Fehn (who recently launched a lawsuit against the band, in particular singling out both Taylor and Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan, accusing them of funnelling profits through multiple business entities, a claim that Taylor related to being “dickish” in a later tweet).
Coupled with Taylor’s recent separation from his second wife with which he had a reportedly toxic relationship and his ongoing battles with depression and it easy to see why We Are Not Your Kind is so steeped in malevolence, its tenebrosity stitched into the albums very DNA; Taylor stating in recent interviews that he was often made to feel like the villain, so adopting a devil may care attitude coupled with a healthy dose of not giving a fuck he became what he was being portrayed as. This adopted persona can also be seen in his new mask; created by horror special effects artist Tom Savini (Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead) it quickly divided fans much to Taylor’s delight. However, to those that were paying close attention especially to many of the visual elements of the official music video for ‘Unsainted’, it communicated something far deeper. Taylor admitting that We Are Not Your Kind is an album that is all about ‘rising above the pain and being reborn’, the mask – which has been likened to a TFO (transparent facial orthosis) – certainly pointing towards themes of one’s image not only being damaged but completely destroyed; the destruction by fire of an effigy of Taylor signalling rebirth in the form of rising from the ashes.
Delving into the album itself, listeners are greeted with intro track ‘Insert Coin’, at less than two minutes long it is not only a foreboding pre-cursor to what is about to follow with its haunting organs and skin-crawling anticipation found between the layers of sound, but a cue that this is not just an album, but a journey as well as an evisceration of one’s very insides. Indications that it is linear in nature and should be listened to as such found in Taylor’s words as they come in from behind declaring “I’m counting all the killers” before distorting out and being engulfed by a disquieting singular noise that grows in intensity before pushing the listener off the edge and into the arms of the anthemic first single ‘Unsainted’. It is a line that can also be found in ‘Solway Firth’ the final track of the record that completes the circular nature of Slipknot’s latest offering, for one cannot be reborn unless one dies first.
As a single ‘Unsainted’ works, and it works damn well. It is radio-friendly but without tumbling into the mainstream, it’s familiar in that old faithful Slipknot way but with enough blast beats and distinct guitar riffs to make it feel shiny and new. The chorus is undeniably catchy and one that you will soon find yourself humming a few hours later; Taylor going for broke vocally as he hits those big notes. Its lyrics are reverent whilst simultaneously encapsulating a decidedly anti-religious feel, lines that discuss praying to lords, impotent bibles, and the death of Taylor’s inner saint peppered throughout.
Bringing back a hit of hefty nostalgia, ‘Birth of the Cruel’ has that nu-metal feel to it, right down to that characteristic scratch, it’s unexpected but welcomed, Taylor himself stating that he particularly enjoyed the “groove” of the song. It’s conclusion ushering in the first of two semi-interlude and predominantly instrumental tracks that feature on the album; the maddening ‘Death Because of Death’ making a statement of its own as the title is repeated over and over again before the line changes to “death because of you” at the last moment, the female vocals that had been underpinning Taylors, repeating the word “you” in a whispered tone once more for effect.
If fans wanted heavy, they get it in spades with this album, both critics and fans alike placing it somewhere between Iowa and Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) on the heaviness scale. Is this some of Slipknot’s best work to date? Yes, yes it is; which is exciting for a band with a tenure as long as theirs.
Not only does We Are Not Your Kind allow for each member to shine in their respective choice of musical apparatus, but it combines a heady mix of that distinctive and longed for Slipknot sound with experimentation that delivers something refreshing to the palate without ever losing the ferocious anger, pace and vitality as seen in tracks such as ‘Nero Forte’ that the band are so well known for; the evocative strings of ‘Critical Darlings’ outro feeding into ‘Liars Funeral’ which sees Taylor deliver guttural howls that tear at your throat as he punctuates the word “liar” repeatedly.
But the album’s not all about break-neck guitar riffs and the idiosyncratic bashing of metallic objects, as ‘Spiders’ introduces a whole new side to Slipknot. The song creating a brooding atmosphere as minacious piano notes that seem to draw musical influence from the soundtracks of The Exorcist and Resident Evil slowly claw their way across the melancholic track, its chorus reminiscent of a disturbing nursery rhyme that would be quite at home inside the mouths of the twins from The Shining. Lyrically the song – much like ‘Birth of the Cruel’ – feeds into what could be viewed as a somewhat more political undertone, the band as one rallying against not only the clichés and negative rhetoric they always have, but against the divisiveness of the world at large. Unlike their country’s very own president, Slipknot don’t care what colour your skin is, or what you look like; they want you to use your difference as an armour, to take pride in it and stand together as one.
If Slipknot set out to break boundaries they have certainly succeeded, We Are Not Your Kind is an album that will shatter any pre-conceptions that one may have had; maturity and evolution perfectly balanced within that beloved Slipknot sound and a rage so real it will leave you with the taste of blood in your mouth.
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