Slipknot - Iowa

 

Slipknot - Iowa
Release Date - 8/28/2001
Number of Tracks - 14
Country of Origin - United States

Despite over the years becoming a punching bag of sorts within the metal community, Slipknot to me remains one of the biggest and most important bands within said genre. Speaking even more personally they were the band for me (and quite a few others) that was the gateway into the metal and hard rock world. Sure I listened to Van Halen and a few others, but they were the band to really make me interested in that form of music. While they aren’t my favorite band anymore and fell in the rankings quite a bit I do still enjoy them and the impact they had on me is still one I can feel.

But returning to a more critiquing form they honestly were an important band once they debuted in terms of the broader world of heavy metal. In many respects they gave metal a very large and very hard push into the more mainstream eye. True metal bands were still around and going hard, but the large wave of pop music and lighter rock kind of kept metal down a bit. Slipknot changed that and with their mix of extreme metal, industrial, and rap/hip hop burst onto the scene and demanded (and got) the public’s attention. Their first album (simply titled Slipknot) assaulted the listeners with a heavy aggression that was also easy to get lost in and honestly catchy as well. I go so far as to say that, from a critical point of view, the self title album is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard, regardless of genre. Simply put the album was a great piece of music and inevitably led to the question of “Will/when will there be a second album? And can they outdo themselves?” The answer would come in 2001 with the release of Iowa, an album equally praised, at times even more so.

Iowa is an album that gets a lot of praise both critically and from fans. Even the band themselves think it’s one of their best if not the best they have ever done. Is it that good? Well let’s see if we can get to the bottom of it. This is Iowa.

Tracklisting
1. (515)
2. People = Shit
3. Disasterpiece
4. My Plague
5. Everything Ends
6. The Heretic Anthem
7. Gently
8. Left Behind
9. The Shape
10. I am Hated
11. Skin Ticket
12. New Abortion
13. Metabolic
14. Iowa

From the get go the listener is thrown into a much darker and heavier world in regards to the sound. While the opening track of their debut (742617000027) album lured you in with its scratchy turntable like rhythm and repetition, the opening track here ((515)) barrages you with screaming and distorted noise. This sudden shift in tone permeates throughout the record. Slipknot is indeed a heavy album both in terms of sound and lyrical content. But Iowa cranks that up way past ten. The self titled album carried a mix of a metal, industrial, groove, and hip hop to it whereas Iowa goes straight into extreme metal territory with very little of the hip hop elements. Some have even described the record as being close to (or outright being) death metal and it is pretty hard to not agree with that. Very little does the record rest from the audio assault and goes to a softer and more melodic place. There are moments of it, but they are outweighed by the chaos. Yet when it does go into that more melodic place the album arguably shines a bit more, as it gives Taylor a chance to show off he can do more vocally than just scream. In the end Iowa is a rather fine record in terms of sound. I suppose somebody could argue that it being mostly heavy throughout creates repetition, but that is honestly a pretty pointless argument considering most albums of a specific genre tend to stay in the same sound throughout. And considering the theme of the album here is one of dark anger and chaos it makes sense to have more hardness than softness. Simply put the sound is good and fits the album like a very tight body glove.

In terms of instrumentation Iowa is pretty well done. It’s actually kind of impressive how well it is considering how jam packed the album is. More members in a band will always have the risk of being overcrowded, and when an album adds in more uses of different instruments, well, the music could become a car crash. Luckily Slipknot has always been rather good at making sure each member and their instrument gets in to where it is both noticeable/audible and fine tuned. Everything is a bit more technical and, while I wouldn’t call it smooth because of the chaos of the general sound, does have a smoothness in how it all flows and works together. I don’t know if I would call it their best work technically, but it Iowa definitely is up there as being one of their best works instrumentally.

However while the actual sound of the music is the foundation of the darkness and chaos of the Iowa it is the lyrics which bludgeon the change in tone home. You know the type of aggression you’re in for when the title to the first song featuring lyrics is People = Shit and is a followed by a track in which the first line is “I wanna slit your throat and fuck the wound.” Corey Taylor has always been a good lyricist in terms of bringing out and showing the blacker side of things and Iowa is no exception. The album goes all over the place in lyrical content in themes ranging from anger to pain to disgust and many another emotion and topics. As I said, Slipknot has never shunned away from diving into some uncomfortable places with their work (many could say that part of that is why they caught on and people could get emotional attached to the songs), but the record here is simply that turned up a ton in heaviness and the lyrics will slam into you to make sure that you remember those subjects and emotions.

Poe’s Favorites

My Plague
Left Behind
Skin Ticket
Iowa

So the question asked at the start was if Iowa is an album that lives up to the hype of the first album and possibly be better? Well to be frank I think Iowa is definitely a very good album, but it isn’t better than Slipknot. To me the first album is a lightning in a bottle moment and is one of the few records I’d ever call perfect. For the album here while I find it good and at times great there just isn’t anything that pushes it farther.

Don’t get me wrong, Iowa is a good album and I’d easily call it their second best album. But when it ends I simply find myself saying “That was good” and nothing else. There just isn’t that something extra or special which makes the recording more than a really good. So it isn’t Slipknot’s best, but it isn’t their worst (that distinction is forever awarded to All Hope is Gone). Iowa is worth a listen, even multiple listens when you need something fast, dark, and heavy.

A -

Slipknot in 2001