Slipknot – The End, So Far: An Album Review

Those maggots from Iowa are back with another studio album, number 7. Following on from 2019’s most excellent We Are Not Your Kind, which I still listen too on a regular basis, this album has been in the works for over a year. So how does it sound? Are the Knot still the Knot?

Read on to get my thoughts, then go out and buy the album yourselves to make your own mind up.

The Review

The opening number Adderall is not what I was expecting. It’s almost soft rock with echoes of the Beatles (think of those funny little bits on the Magical Mystery Tour album) and (somehow) Elbow’s One Day Like This throughout. Corey Taylor just sings, there are no harsh vocals, there’s none of the chaotic music you would expect. It really is a surprising opener. Which is awesome. I love it when a band that does what they do so well (and Slipknot are so ******* good at what they do) and decide to change it up, for me this works very well.

Especially as the second track The Dying Song (Time To Sing) is exactly what Slipknot do. It is hard, fast and fairly handsome. Some lovely heavy music with a really good bass line.

One thing I noticed quite early on was how much ‘singing’ Corey does. I quite like his work with Stone Sour but I couldn’t help thinking that this is Slipknot and I want those harsh vocals, I want his voice to get ****** up. Okay, let me make it clear, it works and at those moments when he does sing, Hivemind for example, his voice is superb. I would be hard-pressed to name a better metal vocalist today. However, I want the harshness. I tend not to listen to Slipknot when I’m feeling all warm and cosy drinking a hot chocolate wrapped up in a duvet.

So are there other things that don’t work? That’s a great question, thank you for asking me. And the answer I think is no. However, I would add a massive caveat to that answer. I feel this album is safe. There is nothing too extreme, nothing that really surprised me, okay the opening track wasn’t what I was expecting, but after a couple of listens it didn’t surprise me.

A slightly sad indictment of the album is after a few listens, I realized that I would prefer to listen to We Are Not Your Kind. There was just nothing that really grabbed me. Some of the songs are pretty decent but for me none of them are going to make my playlist, not at this stage anyways.

Do I have a highlight? Well, if you had a gun to my head I’d probably Adderall and Finale, the first and last songs on the album. Both of these at least got me wanting to listen to them more than once. So I guess they should make my playlist then.

Oh go on then.

I’ll chuck them on. I can always remove them if I get bored of them in the future.

Conclusion

The entire album has echoes of things the band have done in the past, a little blast beat here, some random musical feedback there. This is an excellently put together album. However, it isn’t a ground breaking album, it is Slipknot but I couldn’t help but think they were going through the motions for most of the songs. Like I said at the beginning, buy it, stream it just listen to it and make your own mind up.
Score 7/10

Track Listing

1. Adderall 5.14
2. The Dying Song (Time To Sing) 3.23
3. The Chapeltown Rag 4.49
4. Yen 4.43
5. Hivemind 5.15
6. Warranty 3.51
7. Medicine for the Dead 6.16
8. Acidic 4.50
9. Heirloom 3.31
10. H377 4.23
11. De Sade 5.39
12. Finale 5.07
    Label – Roadrunner
    Release – 30th September 2022

    For all things Slipknot, click HERE, and to purchase the album, click HERE

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