Iowa (2001) - Slipknot (Iowa - Slipknot)

Member Name: NMSO4

Product:	Iowa - Slipknot
Date:	03/01/02 (2227 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great sound, good riffs, well made

Disadvantages: maybe not as good as other two albums

This album has to be the most eagerly awaited albums of 2001 the follow up to the mighty self titled album of 1999 – 2000. Now I actually own this album and have listened to it a fair amount, well quite a lot! At the start I though that this album was not that good, but now the caricature of the songs are building on me and I am beginning to like the album a lot, I don’t think that it has so much put into it as Slipknot – Slipknot because it does just not feel as soulful as before, the songs don’t feel they are about anything special, there’s no track like Prosthetics, that is all slow and builds up, it is just all mainly heavy. Here are the tracks in order with descriptions:

(515) –
A little musical delight for the start of the album made up of samples and strange screaming not as good as 742617000027 off the self titled release.

People = Sh*t –
This isn’t quite as impressive start to the proper album as (sic) gives you but still good, I like the little sound effect they use that slowly gets louder and faster going up to the guitars. This song sort of creates a rhythm to it during the chorus wile Corey screams “people equals sh*t” over the guitar rhythm and a small riff from the second guitar.

Disasterpiece –
This song has one of the pest pieces of playing on the album but I’m not to keen on the track personally, it hasn’t really got much to it after the intro, just a constant guitar and Corey’s screaming. It just feels like there’s no real ‘spine’ to the song and it maybe needs a little more work on it.

My Plague –
This has some cool guitar playing at the start with a good drumbeat with the steal drums clearly heard, like a drum and bass rhythm, sounds good.

Everything Ends –
This song starts with the vocal the guitar riff comes in, after that the drums on the symbol come in, then the who
le song just starts of in the true Slipknot style pounding you with the great but heavy guitar playing.

The Heretic Anthem –
This song a lot of you people may know as wile with the mighty Ozzfest Slipknot played this song live, before the album was out on general release. This song is one of the songs that stands out from the rest, as it is slightly different from the rest in some ways, still a great song though, one of the best on the album

Gently –
This song was originally on the 1996 ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. Album, where is was a slow, calm and gentle song, I think what slipknot have tried to do with this what they did to Tattered & Torn, just that tattered & Torn is now a brilliant song, where as this one they have ruined it in my opinion. It is good as an original track maybe but does not do the original justice and doesn’t have the power of the old one, even though it is a lot heavier. Still a good track, but if I was them I’d stick to the original.

Left Behind –
This track when I first heard it I didn’t think much of it, then I was told by one of my friends that it was going to be the new single so I had another close listen. This is when I realised that this is actually a really good track I just hadn’t realised it! Great Video too…
The normal singing in this song, rather than the screaming brings out the chorus and greatly improves the song other wise it could be a lot worse, although it is a good riff.

The Shape –
This track is another one that I like on the album, it starts slow-ish with a small riff then smashes into a heavy bit with double beat drums and heavy guitar playing, after this intro it dies down to a small bass riff and a drum beat, also with the singing verse. The chorus goes back to the heavy guitar playing etc. I like how the singing has been arranged in the chorus of the song how there’s a mix of two voices, on sort
of echoed one and Corey’s normal voice.

I Am Hated –
This song starts reasonably heavy with a nice riff and then there is two voices in the song, one sounding like its through a radio or something and one Corey’s normal screaming voice, this effect works well in the song, its also a reasonably fast song, I like it.

Skin Ticket –
This starts off with some sound effects, drums and a little nice sounding riff, slow and smooth really then builds up to a very heavy middle to the song where Corey repeats what seems like a set of lines over and over again, it does get boring after a wile but this is still a good song as all the others on this album.

New Abortion –
This starts of with a little burst of heaviness then goes to a nice riff with the drums, after that builds up getting heavier like the little burst at the start, then Corey does a little scream then starts singing over a great guitar riff. The song is a bit the same all the way through but still over all a good song, I like the extra sound effects in it and the chorus is good.

Metabolic –
This song is another good one, starts of with a little mixing and a riff then goes into a nice rhythm, after this it jumps a bit rhythm wise as the song goes through, going from fast drum beats to slow riffs through out. The same with Corey’s singing, jumps about it terms of speed and style as the song progresses.

Iowa –
This song is a newer slightly changed version of Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat’s ‘Killers are Quiet’. It has been made a reasonable amount heavier and a full five minutes longer, when I would say the original of ten minutes was plenty long enough for this style of mellow song as the original was, but this one is heavier but still recognizable as the same song.

The CD comes with a very high quality book compared to other CD’s- the inside cover is made of card with printed pi
ctures, on the front inside cover there is a collage of numbers and various pictures, the back inside cover folds out and he a picture of the band as a group with their new masks and boiler suits, next to that is an information list, websites, producers etc. The middle of the book is slightly transparent paper (like grease proof paper) that folds out four times, to reveal pictures of the heads of each band member and on the other side the lyrics of the album are written out so you can see them through the paper, or see the heads through from the other side, all in all a very well made booklet for an album.

Summary: