Ranking Every Slipknot Album From Worst To Best
Is We Are Not Your Kind their best yet?
Everything about metal was turned on its head when a little band from Iowa decided to raise a middle finger to the music industry. Slipknot have since rewrote the rulebook with each and every album, implementing a zero-tolerance attitude towards all naysayers.
Fresh off the back of the band's 6th studio album We Are Not Your Kind, Slipknot are opening 2020 by touring with fellow metal oligarch, Behemoth. The tour is spectacular, mesmerising and quite frankly a sight to behold, with pyro and stage presence only outweighed by the sheer ferocity of the setlist.
What better time to look back to see how the ‘Knot went from hanging out in a grubby basement jam session, to become the biggest name in the metal industry?
Slipknot’s discography spans over two decades and has been made up of a staggering 17 members over its birth and growth. The 6 studio albums and the lesser known Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat. demo have all had an impact on shaping the band.
Ranking these records was no easy feat, and has not been solely based on diehard fan-favourites, but also taking into account the sheer importance of said albums.
Some positions may surprise the ‘Knot purist...
7. Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. (1996)
Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. is a Slipknot that didn’t even feature the iconic Corey Taylor at the helm and instead made up the very origins of a basement session experiment, fronted by Anders Colsefni. Anders has since disappeared into the abyss, but at the time led a line up that even the most loyal fans may not recognise. The seven (at the time) didn’t even don masks.
The brainchild of Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan and the late Paul Gray eventually took shape when they convinced Joey Jordison to join the project, but that is where the modern day comparisons end. In place of the uber popular Jim Root and thrash-master Mick Thomson were guitarists Donnie Steele and Josh Brainard, with no sign of Sid Wilson’s jungle-infused DJ influences.
The low resonating gruff sound produced on MFKR is a far stretch to what the lovingly named Maggot fanbase have come to expect. Many of the songs eventually got re-recorded for use on the self-titled and Iowa albums including Only One, Gently and Tattered & Torn.
Although this album was officially released as the band’s first album, due to the drastic difference in style and line up, they have since put distance between themselves and the record. It is recognised as nothing more than a demo session, but in truth, without MFKR there would be no Slipknot.