Slipknot have been a band that I have always been facinated with. Right since their self titled debut album came out in 1999. 21 years later and I'm finally seeing them for the first time. I wouldn't say I am a massive fan but I am a fan. By that I mean that I have only gone in-depth with a few of their albums. I am familar with a lot of their singles so I thought I would know enough of their music now to warrent going to their gig. On top of that their most recent album "We are not your kind" is superb and in terms of a complete album, I think its the best they have done.
Most of the time when I tell people who I'm going to see the answer is "Who?". While saying your going to Slipknot does still bring this response sometimes. Most people do recognise the name and their response is often screwing up their face with "Why!?". " Some bands I do get this. Sometimes you do get metal bands that its hard to distingish the songs between each other as it feels like just a noise and the singer is just growling.....................A bit like the support band which was Behemoth. They had a pretty impressive stage set with flames and nice light show. But the actual music was pretty hard to listen to. I couldn't make out any words and it did feel like it was just growling. There were some nice guitar bits but I'm clutching at straws to say enjoyed it at all. But I understand that going to a Slipknot show that Slipknot verge on this type of music so I can imagine there would be a fair amount of the crowd that would enjoy it. Just not me.
When Slipknot came on their stage set up was not surprisingly even more impressive than Behemoth. Its like it had 2 levels with travelators and stairs. The band came onto AC/DCs "For those about to rock" before bursting into a top hit from their latest album "Unsainted". They played a mixture of songs from across their albums. Not focusing on one album too much. In fact their debut album is the one they focussed on most with 5 songs, with We are not your kind with 4. I would say I recognised about three quarters of the songs. But as I was discussing with Campbell who I went with afterwards. He reckons they played quite a few songs which were more deep cuts to please the older more hardcore fans. But the songs I did recognise I was delighted to hear the likes of "Wait and Bleed", "Duality" and "Before I forget" just to name a few.
Back to my point earlier about the reaction of people when I tell them I'm going to see Slipknot. Personally I would understand that reaction if it was for Behemoth but I dont quite get it with Slipknot. Because for me there as well as that growling energy, there is singable choruses. And the singing is pretty dam good! The growling feels like anger release and when I listen to it its like a release you would get if you were just to shout out at the top of your lungs. But I think there needs to be that balance between the singing and growling to make it any good and I think thats where Behemoth fell down.
Slipknot were amazing live and I'm so glad I got the chance to see them. Whether they will be able to top We are not your kind remains to be seen but im intrigued to see if they do.
