Slipknot: All Hope Is Gone

Year released: 2008

Label: Roadrunner Records, Nuclear Blast

Official Website: www.slipknot1.com

Tracks:

1. .execute [1:49]

2. Gematria (The Killing Name) [6:02]

3. Sulfur [4:38]

4. Psychosocial [4:44]

5. Dead Memories [4:29]

6. Vendetta [5:16]

7. Butcher's Hook [4:15]

8. Gehenna [6:53]

9. The Cold Black [4:40]

10. Wherein Lies Continue [5:37]

11. Snuff [4:36]

12. All Hope is Gone [4:45]

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What's the latest fad on the alternative music scene these days? To don make-up and gimmicky costumes of course!

From pioneer hard rockers KISS, to visual-kei of Japan, from black metal gods Dimmu Borgir to indie hardcore rockers The Locust, musicians certainly are not just about their music these days. As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing.”

Certainly, that seems to be the case for these bands.

Just as how visual-kei bands from Japan usually give off a grungy, “emo” feeling to their music from their appearance alone, Slipknot's disturbing appearance for one, leaves on one the first impression of a typical don't-really-care-what-others-think-about-me American metal band: Heavy, mean, thrashy.

Take a listen!: Gritty, aggressive, mainstream-friendly.

But sadly, that is all there really is to it. The old saying about never judging a book by its cover does not apply to Slipknot, for there is nothing new explored here on their 4^th studio album, “All Hope Is Gone”. Similar to their earlier albums, Slipknot has not wandered away from their dissonant music style (which is actually, the typical style of most American metal bands), and as usual, such an album of theirs does produce a single or two. Three in fact, with the lucky trio being “Psychosocial”, “Dead Memories”, and “All Hope Is Gone”.

Yes metal gals n' boys, this is the mark of a “safe”, but not groundbreaking music album. Music, is an amorphous creation of mankind that is supposed to transcend space and time, surpass the previous generation's expectations, and yet retain that heartwarming feeling of melodic satisfaction within one's heart. Sure, Pop, Rock, and even Metal music have all contributed to destroying the traditionalistic views of contemporary music hardliners over the past half century with their immense success, but that does not mean all of them are timeless classics.

With the group numbering at a staggering 9 members, one would almost expect an epic sound from Slipknot. No, we did not get that on their 1^st album, not their 2^nd and 3^rd either, and not even the 4^th as well. In fact, the 4-member Metallica is so epic compared to them that Slipknot looks like Twilight put alongside Underworld. The saving grace of this album is the string of songs bearing the familiar mainstream-friendly tunes such as “Sulfur”, “Psychosocial”, and “Dead Memories”, and being “alternative metal” (Wikipedia, 2008), that sure is not going to please the more underground metalheads.

Metal Demons: The members of Slipknot – From left to right: Jim Root (Guitar), Paul Gray [R.I.P. Passed away in 2010] (Bass Guitar), Chris Fehn (Custom Percussion), Joey Jordison (Drums/Guitar), Shawn “The Clown” Crahan (Drums/ Custom Percussion), Corey Taylor (Vocals), Sid Wilson (DJ), Craig Jones (Keyboards), Mick Thomson (Guitar)

Yes, musical experimentation puts your next newest album at great sales risk, but if sales figures really matter to you more than making good music, you cannot truly call yourself a good musician. Keep your image Slipknot, its cool.

Improve on your sound however, it really needs some tweaking to get variety-seeking freaks (such as myself) to keep the CD in the player for months.

Here's my advice:

1. Mainstream junkies, pick it up, y'all should still find stuff like this cool.

2. Underground dudes, hold your horses, your money's better spent on some other CD.

Hope to hear better stuff on the next album, and my new year resolution to Slipknot: All hope is not gone for you!

Verdict: 8.3 / 10

Metallica: Death Magnetic

Year released: 2008
Label: Vertigo Records
Official Websites: www.metallica.com, www.metclub.com

Tracks:

1. That Was Just Your Life [7:08]

2. The End Of The Line [7:52]

3. Broken, Beat & Scarred [6:26]

4. The Day That Never Comes [7:56]

5. All Nightmare Long [7:58]

6. Cyanide [6:40]

7. The Unforgiven III [7:47]

8. The Judas Kiss [8:01]

9. Suicide & Redemption [9:58]

10. My Apocalypse [5:01]
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Californian metal giants, Metallica, comprising of James Hetfield (Vocalist), Lars Ulrich (Drummer), Kirk Hammett (Lead Guitarist), and Robert Trujillo (Bassist), are back with a new, explosive album that rages on throughout the 74 minutes or so of album time with an energy that masks their age but showcases the immortality of metal music.

True to their early thrash roots, Metallica has taken a step back in time and embraced their original beginnings, and the result is an album chocked full of earnest, head-bangin' metal songs. The album theme is as apocalyptic as ever, addressing issues like hopelessness, guilt, death, religion, most of which are typically covered by most if not all metal bands. Being one of the Big Daddies of metal, it is not surprising that Metallica would have an album theme like this as well. What sets them apart from most other young metal bands these days however, is the fact that they do not try to be someone they are not – they remain true to their sound. In fact, this album stands out for the very fact that it does not stand out, as Metallica has ironically managed to spruce up this increasingly stereotypical metal theme with the usual punishing guitar riffs, ear-pounding drum beats that do not lose out to a piledriver's, and angsty vocals; all of which were previously the standard 3-in-1 package deal that came to be associated with most thrash metal albums.

Seems like only the metal scene is tolerant of staunch, genre-abiding artistes, and it sure is a scene that has enjoyed commercial success in recent years.

The only complaints I might have about this album however, would be the length of the individual album tracks themselves. The tracks are almost as lengthy as Dream Theater's rock symphonies of songs, and being thrash and not progressive metal, hearing 5 minutes or more of tearing guitar solos and rhythmically simple drum beats tend to get boring after making your way through half of the chaotic world of Death Magnetic. Long songs are not necessarily boring, but if an artiste wish for its fans to appreciate every second of such lengthy songs, they have to inject some novelty into the instrumentals or vocals, say, like having more complicated rhythms for the drums of course. Overall, the long guitar solos that bridge sections of the titanic songs together are melodic enough (for thrash metal), but they tend to get boring too as the bridges seem a tad too long.

Rawr!: The bad-ass members of Metallica - From left to right, Kirk Hammett (Lead Guitar), James Hetfield (Vocalist), Lars Ulrich (Drums), and Robert Trujillo (Bass Guitar)


As described by music reviewer Josh Tyrangiel, “The songs fly by with the force of the world's angriest amusement-park ride.” (TIME, September 29, 2008), but after riffing and ripping for minutes and minutes on a sole track alone, much of the energy listeners felt initially would have all but diminished. Velocity and raw power alone are not going to make listeners want to listen on beyond the 3-minute mark, but they do succeed in giving listeners some additional 'music fodder', which means tracks that are listenable when you have no desire to listen to any particular song at the moment but just want to pump some air vibrations into your ear canals.

Overall, this is a good album. Death Magnetic is brilliant in that it reminds metal fans yet again why thrash metal was so popular to begin with, and it certainly does get adrenaline pumping into one's veins as the songs speed by. Apart from the lengthiness, the album is not bogged down by any other disamenities, unless you count the music purists' view of metal music as noisy, unrefined, and a jumble of sounds mixed together in the 'wrong' way.

So, if you feel like you need to hear what thrash metal is all about, this would be the perfect album of 2008 to get and start off with. Non-fans of thrash metal however, you can always still give Metallica a try as well, and perhaps try to appreciate the music of one of the metal pioneers that inspired most modern American metal bands, and even influenced peers such as Megadeth and Black Sabbath.






The two music videos above are of the nicer songs off the album, watch and enjoy!

Verdict: 8.9