10 Most Important Albums In Metal History

There was definitely a lull period in the early '00s where metal fans were wondering what the hell Slipknot even were. Though their intimidating masks and wild live shows may have been a bit chaotic for most fans to take in, the kind of intensity that they brought on their debut felt like the peak of heavy metal excess, with nowhere else left to go. Slipknot were going to forge on though, and their answer to their blockbuster success was to go even heavier for the follow up.

While this might not have been what their label wanted from them, Iowa had the 9 taking every disgusting element of their debut and magnifying it that much more. From the opening scream from Sid Wilson on 515, the rest of the album is an hours' worth of pure brutality, taking elements of death metal and even hardcore punk in some places to create sections that are legitimately scary to listen to, like the final moments of the title track or hearing Corey Taylor turn his screaming into another instrument in the band on the song Left Behind.

This was about as uncommercial as it gets, but there was a lot more mayhem to be had, with fans sending this record up the album charts and fans screaming along to tracks like The Heretic Anthem for years on end. The next few years would show Slipknot experimenting with a lot more styles, but there's a chance that we might not ever hear something this ferocious top the charts again.