I picked up the new Slipknot album the other day from HMV for £10 and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. I have been a fan of Slipknot ever since I first heard ‘My Plague’ from the Iowa album. It is mad to think that Iowa is now seven years old and that it has been four years since volume 3: The Subliminal Verses. In the time since volume 3 frontman Corey Taylor has been involved in his side project, Stone Sour. While many people criticised volume 3 for the apparant influence of Stone Sour things have changed with All Hope Is Gone.

This is a heavy, thrashy and innovative album. There are tracks like Snuff which are reminiscent of the style of volume 3 and as such feels a bit out of place on an album loaded with such dark, heavy tunes. However while it may feel a bit out of place, it is a great track in its own right. To be honest after so much brutality from the first ten tracks you need this song to mellow down a bit before the punishing closer of All Hope Is Gone. Unlike the brooding epic that is Iowa and the chaos of Scissors tihs is a track that finishes of an amazing album in style.

This really sounds fresh, the album as a whole does. There are clean lyrics that are reminiscent of Stone Sour yet they are balanced out with the usual heavy growly stuff that Taylor is so great at.

The album opens with an awesome sub 2 minute intro .execute which leads in perfectly to Gematria (The Killing Name) which is an absolutely mind blowing opening to an album. This is followed by my favourite track on the album, Sulfur which kicks things up another notch of awesomeness. Sulfur has some awesome vocal work in it, I can’t get enough of the chorus. Psychosocial is another masterful track, it just shows that the band are currently in a great place for making music.

The rest of the tracks fit into place with crunching lyrics, softer lyrics with a great mix of guitar dueling held together by ever quality bass work. Joey seems to get better with every album when on the drums and the two percussionists have evolved to throw in some new shit.

This is one heavy, thrashy immense album. I would like to think that many ‘Heavy Metal’ purists would look past the band name on the fron of the album and actually listen to this, they will fall in love with it. This is a great album, people should really check it out.