Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Slipknot - Iowa (2001)

For a period I worked with a guy who put me onto Slipknot.  He was quite into nu-metal and was the only other metalhead at the place were I worked at the time.  Although I was never completely enamoured with much of the nu-metal scene that he talked to me about, I did develop a soft spot for Iowa during the early noughties.  Recently, I stumbled across the album again and found myself wondering if it rang true of having any appeal some twenty years after I first heard it.

It isn't bad per-se. However it is not something I find I can take entirely seriously, which might be the point (I am unsure exactly how seriously Slipknot take themselves).  Lyrically it is very juvenile and angsty, which makes absolute sense of course given the target audience and sub-genre of metal we are dealing with.  In terms of being on point lyrically you could probably award the album five stars based it on it reaching the interested demographic.

Musically it fairs better than I expected.  There's more than just nu-metal here with elements of death metal and groove metal making their presence felt throughout the abum.  The hi-octane delivery suits the variety of the influences well and maintains a real sense of energy and momentum throughout the record.  The riffs are infectious and groovy and do get my old assed head bobbing along on more than one occasion.  I am not a fan of clean vocals alongside guttural growls or more throaty rasps like we have throughout the record though and for the majority of the record the vocals act as a distraction unfortunately from the parts of the music I enjoy.

I won't be revisiting this again I suspect but I think that is more a me thing as opposed to anything the band did wrong on the release.  I might not be in love with it but there are a few things on here that do grab my attention and deserve recognition and acknowledgement even if the whole package doesn't entirely float my boat.