Page 29 - Classic Rock (January 2020)
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swagger. But this was more than just razor-
wielding aggro; a sweet air of nostalgia
shrouded When We Were Kids, mainman
(and new father) Michael Poulsen’s
affecting view of lost childhood. With
Poulsen dialling back his divisive James
Hetfield-goes-rockabilly croon, it was
Volbeat’s finest collection of songs yet. DE
Killer track: When We Were Kids
NICK CAVE & THE
26 BAD SEEDS
Ghosteen GHOSTEEN Released with almost no
advance fanfare, Nick
Cave’s stunning new
double album proved
to be an ambitious,
hallucinatory,
mesmerising avant-rock symphony rooted
in grief for his late teenage son Arthur. SLIPKNOT
Shimmering ambient laments like Sun
Forest and Waiting For You combine spare,
radiant, chamber-orchestra arrangements
with stream-of-consciousness
monologues full of dreamlike imagery After two decades of chaos, catharsis and game-changing heavy music,
and recurring poetic motifs. The overall Iowa’s prodigal sons defied crushing odds to release their sixth album.
effect is achingly beautiful, an
unimaginably awful family tragedy Words: Stephen Hill
transformed into something magical,
cathartic and strangely uplifting. SD “ am amazed I can stand up most of the time,” nightmare, no one would have blamed Crahan for
Killer track: Ghosteen Speaks Slipknot guitarist Jim Root sighs. “Three of bailing, yet there Slipknot were, honouring their
Ius have had neck or back surgery now. One 2019 European festival dates, with Clown in tow.
SLIPKNOT day we will just be gone. That’s how I’d like it. No “There is a commitment to each other,” the
25 We Are Not Your Kind final tour, no announcement, no big drama. We’ll band’s Corey Taylor said of their decision to stay
ROADRUNNER “This album is just vanish and never come back, and you’ll forever silent on those issues. “It’s not something that
decades of catharsis, pain and destruction, it’s media] want the bullshit and the drama, but this is
anyone outside us wants to talk about. [The
be left wondering if Slipknot is even still a thing.”
a masterpiece,” stated
After 20 years of turning music into war, two
Slipknot’s Shawn
a brotherhood, don’t ever forget that.”
Taylor has spoken at length about the inspiration
only natural to wonder just how long metal’s most
‘Clown’ Crahan – and
dared the rock press to
combustible of bands can last. Many of us never
behind We Are Not Your Kind. It is, he says, the most
deny it. We couldn’t.
On standouts like Unsainted and the even expected to see a day when we’d hear a second personal album he has made with the band, written
or third Slipknot album. But on August 9 this year
in the direct aftermath of his marriage falling apart
climactic finale Solway Firth,the masked they released their sixth, We Are Not Your Kind. and his mental health deteriorating. When asked
Iowans’ fury was undimmed but It was the tail-end of 2018 when the excitement what gives him the greatest amount of pride in
their range was extended, and when We levels of Slipknot fans (affectionately named listening back to the record, he’s quick to shoot
Are Not Your Kind hit US and UK No.1 over Maggots) the world over was raised through the back: “The catharsis of going to a place that I’ve
the summer its unholy presence felt like roof as the band released the savage All Out Life, been living in, and a place that I’ve never been able
a glorious pustule on the airbrushed face a song so brutal that, from nowhere, the idea that to express before. Going to that in such a high
of modern pop. HY Slipknot were returning to their belligerent best volume and a pronounced volition, that left me
Killer track: Unsainted suddenly seemed like a genuine possibility. very, very spent but it was very freeing. I think the
But then, everything began to crumble. In fact that there is a little bit of everything that I went
ROYAL REPUBLIC March this year, details of a lawsuit regarding through on it is really cool. Not easy, but cool.”
We may think of them as the masked, psychotic
24 Club Majesty NUCLEAR BLAST compensation issues raised by percussionist Chris superheroes of metal, but Slipknot break, bleed
the band. In May the band released another new and hurt the same as all of us. With that fact comes
Upping the ante of
Fehn were leaked, leading to his departure from
2016’s Weekend Man, the
song, Unsainted, accompanied by a promo video,
Swedes’ fourth album
the realisation that one day, whether they care to
the reveal of a whole new set of masks (complete
admit it, they will have to stop. For what it’s worth,
was easily one of the
Taylor is only interested in staying true to what he
with new member) and the details of the new
sparkliest, most joyful
releases of 2019.
A glimmering glitter-ball of pitch-perfect album. Predictably, the internet lost its shit. The and his bandmates set out to create all that time ago.
“I think they’d be blown away that we’re still doing
song, video and, most feverishly of all, new masks
disco rock, Club Majesty experty blends were dissected at length, both praised to the hilt it,” he says when asked what the band that took
precision camp, irresistible riffs and good- and sneered at from behind the safety of keyboards everyone by shock in 1999 would think of today’s
enough-to-eat tunes. At Download festival by online commentators everywhere. incarnation. “They would look at us now and be
– in a field of muddy metalheads – they Less than a week later, everything would be gut- thrilled that we kept it alive. Vital, poignant, insane.
mixed all this with a cover of Metallica’s wrenchingly put into perspective. News broke that We never watered anything down, we never tried to
Battery, while dressed in matching sparkly percussionist and band architect Shawn ‘Clown’ do anything that didn’t feel right. That’s the whole
jackets and the shiniest of shoes. Now that Crahan’s daughter, Gabrielle, had passed away at point of Slipknot: to do whatever you want but to
takes balls. PG the age of 22. After suffering every parent’s worst do it at a hundred miles per hour.”
Killer track: Anna-Leigh
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