There was an idea of Slipknot being something more than metal. With two extra percussionists, a sampler and a DJ, they stuck their head out the crowd and presented a sick, twisted world of hypnotic, adolescent music that fueled millions of teenage hearts, “maggots”, with angst worldwide in the late 90s and early 00s. That idea seemed somewhat suffocated on Vol.3: The Subliminal Verses. Now, with their fourth studio release, All Hope Is Gone, the idea seems as though it never even was meant to be. However, we were always told we would never know what the band would do next, and so far Slipknot has been true to their words, for better or for worse.
In recent years there has been a renaissance in the metal community in form of a return to the heavy, thrashy, still radio friendly melodic song structures. “Wait and Bleed” and “Left Behind” are both melodic tracks, but the melodic themes used in those tracks were so original and never heard of before. Now, and also four years ago, Slipknot’s melodies have succumbed to the conventional.
Everything also seems to struggle to always keep it heavy in an attempt to sound “real” and appeal to the exponentially growing hardcore metal crowd. Slipknot departed into this style somewhat on Vol.3, but on All Hope Is Gone that style completely dominates the album.
All Hope Is Gone is thrash metal. The sound (the overall sonic sound of the album) is raw yet clear. You can hear every spit out of Taylor’s mouth, every scratch from the guitars and every skin or metal crate being beat by either a drum stick or baseball bat. This is in stark contrast to the more mushy Ross Robinson sound of their self titled debut and Iowa.
Unfortunately, the two percussionists Chris Fehn and Shawn Crahan get drowned in Jordison’s relentless drumming; he is undeniably the star of the show. Sampler Chris Jones and DJ Sid Wilson, although still presenting some eerie and interesting sounds, are almost lost like Fehn and Crahan in the relentless mix of guitars and drums.
Even their entire sound tends to get lost in this day and age. It is heavy, yes, it is relentless, of course; but the darkness and sickness is gone from the early days. Technical riffs never become more than just that; technically impressive, and the passion seems gone.
In an interview with Live Daily, guitarist Jim Root expressed feelings about the recording session being rushed, and that sure does echo throughout the album. You can almost feel the effort that is put in to making it heavy and sound a certain way, instead of tormented hearts being poured out onto tape, as was the case with their debut album and Iowa.
What also resonates with that statement are Cory Taylor’s lyrics that sometime seem to introduce a tad more syllables than needed. Perhaps because of time constraints or simply because of lack of opportunity to do something more interesting with the song structures; something that, again, Root discussed in the Live Daily interview (the producer Dave Fortman’s inability to bring all the nine members together). Yet, Taylor manages to successfully structure this album’s lyrical content around the songs with social and political themes, letting the personal therapy, although still apparent, take a few steps back. There are times, more than a few, when the lyrics seem to be the most outstanding part of the album. Pointing his finger at politicians this time find Taylor treading into fields of oil and war conspiracies, public deception and mass revolution.
This is also the first Slipknot album I have heard with so many influences on at the same time. The most apparent is the frenetic thrashing of the late 80s bands like Testament, Slayer and Megadeath. But what stands out the most is the undeniable Alice In Chains influence felt on a number of tracks. I can’t even help myself but to think of Marilyn Manson in the chorus to “Vendetta” and post-chorus of “Snuff”.
All hope is, however, not quite gone yet. There are moments on the record that are heartfelt and truly artistic. There is an underlying theme here, somewhat buried under all the constraints and efforts of appealing to the modern melodic thrash/dead metal crowd, that unfortunately doesn’t come to fruition. In almost every song you will get flanked by unexpected and interesting melodies or structural paths, only to come back to the same formula again and again.
For every Slipknot album there has been an evolution in sound, theme and structure. For every album up until now, that is. All Hope Is Gone draws more than a few similarities with Vol. 3 and, to some extent, Iowa, but never really manages to be that revolution of maturity and musical growth that often seem to be the case with artists in their fourth iteration. Wasted potential perhaps even more than ever before; All Hope Is Gone is heavy and technically impressive, but hauntingly empty of substance and originality.
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