Manchester ArenaBlending thrilling theatricality with skilled musicianship, the metal megastars unite their ‘maggot’ followers against the forces of darkness
It’s 21 years since Slipknot blazed out of Iowa with their eponymous debut album and a striking USP. Their horror masks tapped into the movie-viewing habits of their soon-to-be enormous audience, while their bleak, nihilistic lyrics tapped into widespread feelings of social unease, isolation, disquiet and rage. The brutal
music channelled what late rock critic Lester Bangs called “the sacred power of horrible noise”: a mix of heavy metal, pummelling blast beats, elements of rap plus vintage Killing Joke and Nine Inch Nails – all sounding as if they were being put through an industrial grinder. It proved not just a recipe for world domination – they became very big, very quickly – but endurance. Last year’s chart-topping sixth album, We Are Not Your Kind, received some of the best reviews of their career.
It has, however, been a bumpy ride. The music has been crassly linked to violent incidents, despite Slipknot’s vocal opposition to America’s gun culture. They remain a nine-piece, but only clown-masked percussionist Shawn Crahan (also a film director) survives from the original 1995 lineup, as members have been lost to lawsuits, a neurological disease, sackings, religious differences and an overdose (founding bassist Paul Gray died in 2010). Somehow it has all been grist to their furious mill.