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If it's sometimes a chore to get past Slipknot's stratified shock-rock shtick, Iowa's nouveau metal-mongers take the occasion of their third album proper to prove there's a genuinely restless, undeniable musical juggernaut beneath the horror-show masquerade. Producer Rick Rubin has honed their modern metal assault to a fine edgW
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If it's sometimes a chore to get past Slipknot's stratified shock-rock shtick, Iowa's nouveau metal-mongers take the occasion of their third album proper to prove there's a genuinely restless, undeniable musical juggernaut beneath the horror-show masquerade. Producer Rick Rubin has honed their modern metal assault to a fine edge here, tempering it with a compelling sense of dynamics missing from all too many similar heavy forgings in the bargain. But credit the band with hammering together the solid foundations of what stands as their best album to date, a collection that succeeds by--surprise--reverting to more traditional song-forms and occasionally operating at something other than a relentless fevered pitch. Call it mainstreaming or a newfound maturity; whatever it is, it pays diverse dividends from the opening cinematic tension of "Prelude 3.0" and paramilitary-cadenced thrill ride "Three Nil" to the moody, rap-thrash single "Duality" and the unlikely, angst-laden pop hooks of "Circle." If that song's cello-inflected atmospherics and lilting Corey Taylor vocals may have the band's faithful initially rubbing their ears in puzzlement, by the time the evocative acoustic guitars, bittersweet harmonies and string quartet break of "Vermilion Pt. 2" rolls around, it's clear this is a band who's challenged itself with broad new horizons--and triumphed. --Jerry McCulley
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50 Favorite Albums pt.2