10 Metal Albums That Shouldn't Have Been Great (But Totally Were)
4. Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter
By all accounts, .5: The Gray Chapter (2014) should have been a catastrophic failure. Not only was it Slipknot's first full album in six years (thus generating a hype that would be insanely difficult for anyone to satisfy), but it was also the band's first release without core members Paul Gray and Joey Jordison, the former of whom sadly passed away in 2010.
Gray and Jordison were two of the biggest songwriters in Slipknot. Either together or individually, they were involved in the crafting of some of the band's biggest hits, including "Duality", "Before I Forget", "Vermilion", "Spit It Out" and more.
However, The Gray Chapter went on to become one of the best metal albums of 2014, something that, much like Surgical Steel, would be a summary of every style the band had employed up to that point, from anarchic nu metal to melodic hard rock and everything in between.