Vol 3. The Subliminal Verses
Artist: Slipknot
Review: I can remember pretty well the time in which I became aware of Slipknot's existence. I was in middle school, 6th grade to be precise, and I discovered a little website called Youtube. With this fancy website I could search and find any music my heart desired. It was the first time I had any agency in deciding what kind of music I actually wanted to listen to, and was a super exciting time for me. I was super into music back then, but up until that point I was at the mercy of whatever my parents were into. In 2006 though, I actually got to choose the music I wanted to listen to, the music that would shape my adolescence. It started with My Chemical Romance, and quickly moved to any angsty song I heard on a Naruto AMV. There was definitely a limit to what my young brain could handle though, and some music tangential to the pop-punk I was listening to definitely went a bit hard for me. One of these bands was Slipknot, a band I became aware of due to a new friend I made in 7th grade. He showed me their stage personas, played me a couple of their songs, and got me feeling super intimidated by them. Their music was much heavier than what I was used to, and had pretty vulgar lyrics. Although he was a pretty normal guy, many of the people I knew who were into the band scared me as well, which cemented the band's image in my pre-teen brain as being the music scary kids were into. Crazy enough, this image has stood untested until this point in my life where I've actually taken the time to listen to a whole album by the band that used to terrify me. Looking back now it's so funny, because this image I built of the bands music is so far from their actual sound.
Now I can't speak for all of Slipknot's music, but I can speak for the album I listened to, "Vol 3.", and my takeaway from it is that Slipknot makes decently radio friendly hard rock. Not blow your ears out aggressive screamo, not horrifying death metal, normal hard rock. It was such a surprise to go through this album, and realize just how normal and listenable the band's music is. It's so normal that the band's image comes across as kind of comedic. I can't imagine going to a Slipknot concert, seeing these guys in scary masks straight out of a Saw movie, and hearing them play... radio hits. It's just so funny for me to imagine. I'm sorry if there are any fans of Slipknot reading this and thinking I mean offense in my statements, I definitely don't. I just don't think this is the kind of music I'd expect from a band rocking scream masks. They're no more intense musically than many of the other bands that existed in the 2000s, sure their lyrics were pretty explicit for the time, but I don't think that's enough to justify their aggressive personas.
Now image aside, how is the actual music? Honestly, as far as hard rock goes this album is terribly generic. It just lacks any identity. Aside from the songs that were big radio hits, you could spin a wheel, randomly select a song off this album, play it for me, tell me it's a song from a band I've never heard of, and I'd believe you. Almost every track on this album is just so forgettable. All of the heavier tracks have the same sound, and all of the moodier tracks sound like they could be from literally any other 2000s alternative rock band.
As I said before, although this album is mostly super boring, it does have its moments. Radio hits like Duality and Before I forget are genuinely catchy and enjoyable. I've been rocking them on my drive home from work pretty frequently, and can say with confidence that they are the best tracks on the album. Unfortunately, this is the only really positive thing I have to say. Aside from this, the album just doesn't leave an impression.
Recommendation: It's honestly pretty hard to "recommend" this album to anybody who isn't already a fan of Slipknot's music. If you like their stuff, you will probably be decently whelmed diving into an album of theirs in its entirety. If you have no opinion of Slipknot, but like 2000s angsty pop-punk you'll probably have a similarly neutral opinion of this album to myself. If you want to relive the gold old angsty days, this album definitely has the capability to send you down memory lane, but in my opinion so does most any other pop-punk album from the 2000s and they're all much better. I honestly just can't say you'll find anything interesting here. If you really want to listen to some Slipknot just search them up on Youtube and listen to the first few songs that come up. That or get cultured and watch some Naruto AMVs.
...
And that's my review of "Vol 3." by Slipknot! Lowest score I've given so far during YOC, it feels kind of bad but at the same time I just can't justify putting it any higher. Next review will be "The Face of Another"
Until then!
Comments
Post a Comment