New Slipknot Album: 10 Things The Band Need To Get Right

6. Acknowledge Their Roots

Slipknot have never been easy to pin down to any particular sub-genre of music. They have largely prospered from bringing a wide range of metal off-shoots into each of their albums, from rap metal to sludge, and everything in between. The band would benefit from returning to the music that inspired much of their early work, if they're to retain any of the raw energy that aided their meteoric rise to fame. The best parts of All Hope Is Gone bore aspects of thrash, death and groove metal, yet they were not consistently touched upon throughout the album, instead generally opting for a more 'standard' metal sound. These sonic influences don't need to be the main drive of the album, but the further Slipknot get from their musical roots, the less direct and effective their sound seems to become. Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses managed to deliver the perfect blend of old and new, daring to place acoustic led tracks alongside the cacophonous likes of The Blister Exists, Opium Of The People and Pulse Of The Maggots. Joey Jordison went as far as to describe the album as "if Slayer was tapping on Radiohead". The number of influences that perforated that LP's densely layered sound were innumerable, yet the group were still able to hang on to what made them Slipknot.