Slipknot – All Hope Is Gone – review

Artist: Slipknot

Title: All Hope Is Gone

Label: Roadrunner

Rating: 8/10

Corporate line:
After over 5 million albums sold in the US, Slipknot returns with their most powerful statement yet – “All Hope Is Gone.” Filled with the fury people have come to expect from Slipknot as well as some extraordinary surprises, this album is the culmination of the band’ s nine unique members, three platinum albums and their 10 year journey at the top of the Hard Rock genre. Kicked off by the powerful crescendo that is “Execute” and “Gematria (The Killing Name)” and ending with the blistering track “All Hope Is Gone” – the album is a cohesive statement about the world today and truly cements the band as one of Rock’ s heavyweights. The lead single Psychosocial will propel the new album to match and exceed the success of the last album, “Vol 3: Subliminal Verses” which produced numerous Top 20 songs at Rock radio including a Top 5 track at Active and Modern Rock radio.

The Good:
“Psychosocial” – “And the rain will kill us all/ throw ourselves against the wall” are interesting lyrics in the context of a song that sounds brilliantly schizophrenic.
“Gematria (The Killing Name)” – Absolutely brutal and welcome.
“Snuff” – A Slipknot ballad? Yes and it doesn’t suck.
“Sulfur” – The verses bombard your ears while the chorus gives your soul a break–only momentarily.
“Dead Memories” – Slip this into any rock fans iPod and they’re walking away a fan.
“All Hope Is Gone” – Don’t hear it… listen to it.

The rest:
“Butcher’s Hook”

Finally:
Slipknot leaves nobody behind in their brutal attack called “All Hope Is Gone.” You have to wonder where Slipknot could go. On the one hand they are out of range for most listeners but if you cut snippets of the choruses they could be Top 40–and not in a bad way.

Watch the video for “Psychosocial”