Slipknot received a lot of criticism on their first two albums for an apparent over-reliance on profanity-infused lyrics they cleaned up their act on their third outing and remained radio-friendly on All Hope Is Gone. Despite dropping the 'parental advisory' tag, the band managed to stay just as volatile and aggressive as before. People might think it's time for the group to stop waxing lyrical about how much they hate themselves and the world they live in, but if they totally abandon one of their greatest strengths, then they might as well hang up their masks and kick the metaphorical chair out from underneath themselves. Slipknot don't need to start spewing curse words like there's no tomorrow, they simply need to retain that vitriolic ranting that they're so good at. While they have certainly toned down the visceral imagery of their early work in recent outings, the lyrical content has maintained the same sense of psychotic truculence. That sense of angst felt lost at times in All Hope Is Gone, but thankfully songs like This Cold Black proved that Slipknot still had pockets of hatred left in them, eager to be released in a torrent of nihilistic political commentary. Let's hope they've still got enough in them for their fifth release.
