Founded in 1995 in Des Moines, Iowa, Slipknot needs no introduction. The band rapidly rose to success following the release of their self-titled debut album in 1999. Since then, Slipknot have sold 30 million records worldwide and it's one of the most important headliner acts in Metal today. Following 2014's .5: The Gray Chapter, We Are Not Your Kind is their sixth studio album. It is the band's first album since the firing of longtime member Chris Fehn. In fact, percussionist Shawn Crahan is the only founding member left.
My first impression of We Are Not Your Kind was that it's a Slipknot album. No, seriously, it's founded on their pillars and almost every song sounds familiar from the first listen. Some songs are heavy and direct and others are more experimental. But even the heavier songs are typically longer than the three to four minute range from the early records. The other thing is that it's a long album, 64 minutes and fourteen songs albeit three are short intro/transitions.
After the intro song "Insert Coin", which reminds me of Meshuggah's "Future Breed Machine" intro, we get the first single "Unsainted". From the get-go, we see old school Slipknot meets new ideas. The intro with a choir is a statement, but soon Corey Taylor screams bring us back to the classic early 2000's punch combined with a sing along chorus. It's a cool song that's been working out well live. The other singles "Birth of the Cruel" and "Solway Firth" (probably my favorite because it's heavy but also different) exemplify the old-school songs in the album. "Nero Forte" is future live favorite with some of the best drumming in the album. "Critical Darling" gets the prize of catchiest chorus!
Then we have the curved balls. "A Liar's Funeral", "Spiders" (featuring the only guitar solo on the album), "My Pain" (a post-metal song sounding almost like early Pink Floyd) and "Not Long for This World" ( a future radio single?) are the most different, slow to mid-tempo songs that explore new territories. While I am not particularly excited about all of them, they are OK and well placed in the album so it still flows well and gives diversity.
Overall, I do like the drumming, the production, Corey's performance, the guitar riffs and the fact that the sampling and scratching sounds are really reduced to the minimal needed. It's a very tight, well-written record. I like the fact that they experimented and tried new things, but still a lot of the songs sound very similar to each other and to previous records. It's a thin line between their signature sound and repetition. Regardless of this small criticism, I believe We Are Not Your Kind will please old and new fans alike and critics. It's gonna be all over the top of the year-end lists for 2019.
SCORE: 80/100
DR: 5
Genre: Nu-Metal
Released by Roadrunner Records on August 9th, 2019
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