Review by MartinDavey87 for Slipknot - Slipknot (1999)

I remember it’s late ’99 and I’m a recently converted 12 year-old metal fan. I was into bands like Metallica, Megadeth and KISS, but there was a band that a few other metal kids at school were digging, that were heavier and way more aggressive than the bands I liked. They were listening to ‘Slipknot’, the self-titled major label debut by American nu metal band, Slipknot. 

Admittedly, I wasn’t really a fan back then. Not for any particular reason, I’d just never gotten around to giving the ‘Knot much of a chance. I knew all the stories about them… how they pissed on the floor and rolled around in it before gigs. How they’d decapitate goats and flaunt the heads around backstage. How they’d physically fight each other to get psyched up for gigs. The absolute nonsense you’d believe as a kid was unreal! 

But here I am now, it’s 2026 and I’m nearly 40 years-old. Am I too old for this nonsense now? Well, no. I’m not. 

The music is still aggressive as hell, and the band are incredibly tight with their playing. This was in nu metal’s heyday, so there wasn’t much in terms of guitar solos etc. Just riffs galore and constant shouting. I’ve always thought Slipknot’s earlier releases did sound a bit muddy and unpolished, but I guess that just adds to the intensity. Overall though, there’s a number of highlights, but the album (like a lot of nu metal releases) does tend to get a bit repetitive towards the end. 

Regardless, songs like ‘(Sic)’, ‘Wait and Bleed’, ‘Surfacing’, ‘Eyeless’ and ‘Spit It Out’ still hold up well today. While the band would go on to release better albums, this was still a pivotal moment in nu metal history, especially if you were a kid growing up during that era. It feels like a lifetime ago that Slipknot were the “heaviest band in the world”, but this is angry, angst-ridden nostalgia at its finest.