Album Review: Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind

Whether intentional or not, the chaos that typically surrounds Slipknot tends to ensure each subsequent album release is a bona fide event. The lead-up to album number six from the Iowan masked metal nonet has been no exception.

Excluding frantic standalone cut All Out Life (stronger than some material that made the cut here), the singles from We Are Not Your Kind somewhat confirme expectations of an approach meshing 2004's Vol 3 The Subliminal Verses and 2001's Iowa. Unsainted is big, muscular and anthemic, with a hook so catchy it’ll cause an outbreak, although it's ultimately rather typical fare. Meanwhile, closer Solway Firth injects piano flourishes, electronics and Corey Taylor's crooning, but is overall a bruising riff-fest. It isn't overly catchy, but it does indicate the group's claims the record would channel heaviness akin to Iowa weren't just ballyhoo.

Elsewhere, We Are Not Your Kind drops occasional nods to their debut and the odd curveball. Critical Darling's a standout – a hyper-aggressive pummelling tempered with melody and those familiar scatting vocals. Red Flag and the atmospheric Orphan channel their early heaviness, and A Liar's Funeral blends Taylor's Stone Sour moodiness with the 'Knot's trademark rage. Perhaps a few tracks (such as a couple of interludes) from the 14-song affair could have been culled to maximise impact, as some of the more ambient moments in the second half meander. Spiders is a grower though, gradually sinking its claws in as it presents unexpected vocal and textural twists.

Twenty years on from their boundary-smashing debut album, Slipknot have already blazed their trail, their primal attack offset by loftier creative ambitions. But We Are Not Your Kind is executed with the characteristic self-assurance you'd expect from one of metal's biggest names.