10 Most Underrated Metal Albums
3. All Hope Is Gone - Slipknot
It almost feels wrong to say that a group's biggest album is underrated. I mean, no one's talking to pop fans across the world about how underrated Thriller by Michael Jackson is, right? At the same time, All Hope is Gone by Slipknot is one of the few records that deserves some serious reevaluation from the Maggots.
Right off the bat, this album was criticized for trying too hard to be commercial, with ballads like Snuff being the more "egregious" examples. Then again, something like commercial and radio-friendly isn't something that's even in the same area code as Slipknot. Across every single track on this thing, this feels like the logcal next step from Vol. III the Subliminal Verses, with songs that are just as hard-hitting while not necessarily sacrificing any type of melodic structure.
As opposed to being pummeled over the head with poppy songs, more radio friendly stuff like Dead Memories is always balanced out by something like Gematria, which kicks the album into high gear from the word go. Also despite having been played into the ground over and over again, Psychosocial still remains a staple of Slipknot's set for a damn good reason, with a sound that can ignite a moshpit at a moment's notice. There may be much heavier outings in the 9's catalog, but All Hope is Gone is still one hell of an album that no self-respecting metalhead would want to miss out on.