Slipknot have this teen angst thing nailed down...as Bart Simpson once said, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. They're not idiots. Today's Gen-Y Global Teens have pop lolitas and boy groups for the kids, cheeky 'punk' bands for future frat boys, boring trance music for the ravers, sophomoric rap for the suburbanite gangstas, and yes, doom rock for the bottom-of-the-barrel misfits, all carefully marketed and packaged. What sets Slipknot above boring white-boy metal rappers and cartoony acts like Mudvayne and Gwar is their absolute, undeniable conviction and tight metal musicianship.

Iowa would be half the album it is if it were not for the efforts of Ross Robinson and Andy Wallace (Wallace mixed Slayer's classic Reign In Blood). The duo are able to combine powerful vocals, two guitars, an extraordinary drummer, a bassist, two percussionists, and two samplers, creating such a monolithic sonic wall of hell, making it, bar none, the greatest-sounding metal album I have ever heard, and I've heard a lot of them.

Although the use of the ubiquitous eff-werd is repeated ad infinitum, vocalist Corey Taylor shows some creative growth on Iowa. 'My Plague', 'Heretic Anthem', 'Metabolic', and the searing 'I Am Hated' show that he's capable of more than nonsensical bellyaching. Slipknot's incredible musical chops are evident on songs like the frantic 'People=S**t' and 'Disasterpiece'. The album's epic title track is a bit of a departure, and is equally thrilling and disturbing, a kind of nu-metal blues jam that lasts a good fifteen minutes.

Like their debut cd, Slipknot are again guilty of not knowing when to quit. Iowa is ten or fifteen minutes too long; 'Left Behind', while possessing amazing production, is an obvious single stuck in to get some radio airplay and sell more units, and 'Skin Ticket' says nothing that Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral didn't say seven years ago. Something with such extreme content should be shortened... that's what makes something like the 28-minute Reign In Blood so memorable.

Though not as explosive as the previous album, Iowa is a terrific piece of work. I'm simply amazed at the intensity. However, I'm worried that some poor, misguided kid somewhere will misinterpret the lyrics and take out his or her frustrations the wrong way. I've always been against musical censorship, but any parent out there who hears this music coming from their kid's bedroom should make sure the kid has his or her head screwed on straight. For every ten kids who dig this album for its visceral power, there will always be one who'll take it all a bit too seriously. The other day I put on Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast, and found myself longing for the days when metal bands sang about the old Prisoner tv show, Native Americans, and the Book of Revelations. It all seems so harmless now.


I have something to say to both fans and haters.   October 13, 2005
29 out of 37 found this review helpful

first of all, i'm no kid. i'm 22. did this so i dont register. This is one long review, so guys and gals, take careful notes.

1. why the hell is this album being compared to death metal? Does anyone know what death metal is?! Listen to nile, six feet under, cannibal corpse, death, opeth... i could go on and on. then, compare those bands to this. Boy, what a difference, eh?! i bet you will all feel stupid.

2. People should not judge a band because the wear some stupid masks. If you took masks and put them on pantera or metalllica, they wouldn't suck. What someone wears or doesn't wear does NOT affect ones musicianship. this is just a lame-ass excuse for hating something.

3. a band like this get awards because the so-called "real metal bands" just stay where they are, and don't promote anything. Yeah i hate mtv too, but there are many other ways of doing this. and most of you wouldn't want a band like opeth or nile to do. no matter which of these two a band does, people STILL complain, so quit complaining that bands like this get the awards, because you are only contradicting youselves.

4. People shouldn't say that a band is just noise, because in reality, all music is noise anyway. if anything were pure noise, it would never be signed to an important record label. a producer and engineer cannot risk all that money on a band that can't do sH*t.

5. lyrics themselves don't make a great song, you idiots.

6. one shouldn't ever hate a band because they sold out. all bands sell out at some point in their career. all the great bands people love (including myself have sold out or are on the border line). metallica sold out, pantera was on the border line when they split, megadeth sold out, korn sold out, even napalm death sold out! just move on with you lives and don't make such a big deal out of something that is so natural in the music business.

7. one shouldn't claim that a band is bad because of what they play. just because they play something you don't like or they play something that is bad doesn't mean they can't play. Munky from korn can give you some amazing solos he doesn't play when he's with the othre band members. one's musicianship is NEVER limited to the group.

8. People should also think before they write the reviews on this or any other site. people here claim that people that listen to this are "posers" or "wannabes". did any of you people ever come to the conclusion that most of these people (including myself) listen to other bands and OTHER TYPES of music? I myself have already mentioned some of my favorite bands (pantera, metalllica, megadeth, opeth, nile, napalm death, death, six feet under, korn) i bet you some people hear listen to at least one of those (besides korn)

9. one shouldn't waste their time writing pointless reviews for an almbum or band they could f#cking care less about. You are wasting your own time and energy trying to come up with excuses as to why a certain style of music or band suck. Plus, nobody gives a rat's ass about what others think. nobody can tell you what is good music and what isn't.

11. Who cares if something is "nu-metal"?! i don't listen to this music much (except korn and some of slipknot's songs). nu-metal is a style of heavy metal. both styles or a style of rock. rock music is rock whether it's elvis, or as i lay dying.

10. if you are a real music lover, you will appreciate all music. for the music you hate, you should see what IS good in it. a real music lover appreciates all music.

My point is:

-opinions don't change facst.

-Have a nice day.



Wow   September 17, 2001
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

I really found nothing wrong with Slipknot's self-titled album. I mean I do agree that these guys don't have alot of talent in some areas, but the energy that they bring to the table is just incredible. So I was skeptical about their new album entitled IOWA. Well everybody that says that these guys have sold out and that they suck, can stick it up their ... Slipknot have gone death metal. Pure brutality. As simple as that. I read in one review of this album that Slipknot have stuck a blood covered knife down the throats of their listeners and they are going to make you like it. I could not agree more. A perfect way to sum up Iowa. Corey Taylor(8), continues to be one of the most talented singers in metal. With his full on assault of ferocious screams and beautiful melodies, Taylor will continue to lead the attack that is Slipknot.Of course Joey Jordison(1), continues to be one of the best drummers out there, as he continues his fast pounding and full on assault.
Slipknot have definitly scored a perfect 5 with me on Iowa. Its's time for people to stop disliking these guys due to the masks and jumpsuits, and it is time for people to start looking deep into the realm of savagry that is Slipknot.

Tracks of note: People=..., Disasterpiece, Everything Ends, The Heretic Anthem, Gently, Left Behind, The Shape, New Abortion, and Iowa


Garbage.   November 28, 2004
IhateMTV (The U.S.)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful

Not only is Slipknot's "Iowa" an insult to real metal, but it's also an insult to music in general. Like the last album, we get poor musicianship and beyond bad lyrics. Honestly, these are some of the worst lyrics I've ever seen - immature, whiny, and overly pathetic. Even Good Charlotte has better lyrics than this (don't get me wrong, they are terrible as well). The guys from Good Charlotte are pretty young and don't know what they're talking about, so I can forgive them for some of their bad lyrics. Corey Taylor, however, is in his 30's and has a kid, yet he's still whining like a 12-year-old. I used to actually like these guys a few years ago (I even had one of their t-shirts), which was, ironically, when I was 12.

We start the album off with "(515)", which is nothing but grown men screaming and trying to sound scary, but it only makes me wet my pants with laughter. The next track, "People = S***" is a poorly written rant on the society around them. Funny, this is the same society that pays these guys millions to write the same kind of lyrics a gothic 13-year-old could write.

Moving on, "The Heratic Anthem" boasts "If you're 555, then I'm 666!"...yeah, that's good to know. If you're going to try being satanic, at least make a little sense. "Gently" is next, and oddly, it's actually decent. At least they try to do something a little different on this song, as it has a little bit of a progressive feel to it. The closer, "Iowa", is over 14 minutes, and as you guessed, is pure agony. When asked about this track, Corey claims that he "performed it naked and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds". And we wonder where kids get the idea to slit their wrists? As if his lyrics didn't show how childish the guy is, his actions certainly do.

When it's all said and done, I really can't see why anyone would like this. Tuned down guitars, boring/repetitive riffs, and it isn't even catchy (after all, that's all these kids care about nowadays) like their other albums are. I guess people think these guys are cool since they can use more unoriginal curse words than Linkin Park. Yes, this is heavier than their last album, but screaming gets really annoying when you don't have a decent band to back it up. Hopefully, one day these kids will realize how bad this crap is and be embarassed to admit that they were ever fans (sadly, these kids will probably move on to whatever the next trend is). It's kind of weird how if someone insults Slipknot, that suddenly makes them a 'stuck-up musical elitist' or 'an extreme metal fan that can't appreciate anything', yet the same people that spout that kind of stuff to defend their precious band will freely insult the likes of Nelly. How ironic it is that Slipknot are the Nelly of the metal World - terrible lyrics, an immature vocalist that's in his 30's, and most importantly, both embarass the genre that they try to imitate.

(Small note: I showed this review to a professional reviewer, who replied by calling it the "Best review ever".)