Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind Review
A long heavy metal career keeps careening forward, despite the loss of longtime members on Slipknot's 6th studio album We Are Not Your Kind. Having lost their third original member of the 9 since the inception, Slipknot hasn't found a reason to end their reign on the heavy metal genre, and instead, sound as strong as they ever have, despite hitting some of the same notes of their previous releases.
Opening with an ominous and dark intro track, Insert Coin is one of the few transitional numbers that break up the sonic assault of Slipknot's arsenal. Some of their tracks sound as poppy as they've ever been, with the first full track of the album Unsainted, but Slipknot doesn't let it pull them from their roots. The ensuing tracks don't leave much room to breathe, in typical Slipknot fashion. Other songs that follow this poppy hook in the choruses include Nero Forte and Critical Darling, and they are essential to the songs themselves and give Corey Taylor time in between his rampant heavy metal vox. They also are effective enough to get stuck in listeners' heads without sounding cheesy or watered down after all these years of multiple album releases.
A Liar's Funeral slows down the pacing of the previous heavy riffing and is an example of what Taylor and company are capable of when given time to put together a slower song. This can also be heard in their transitional track What's Next as it drops into their melodic Spiders, as well as their slow-burning and haunting My Pain. The other big hitters throughout We Are Not Your Kind go hard and fast and are more of the same that they've been putting on throughout their over 20 year career.
Despite losing and having to replace 3 of their original 9 members, Slipknot has proven with We Are Not Your Kind that they are nowhere near slowing down, and they have another critically acclaimed album to put up on the wall. As their 6th album shows, they have been solid and able to maintain a steady hand and consistent sound to this day, for better or worse.
We Are Not Your Kind - 8/10
Recommended Tracks: Critical Darling, A Liar's Funeral, Spiders
