Hi folks. It is time for another post on a band I like, whose outspoken singer has mentioned Queen as an influence. In other words, this post is another in The Show Must Go On series of posts and even though they may not sound like Queen, I like this band equally as much and I always will, despite not liking every single song on every single album as much as I like others. I will get it to that in another post which I think needs to be written at some point and I need to ask that question, which will come when it is time.
It is May 25th 2024 and 20 years ago, Slipknot unleashed their 3rd album entitled Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and as a Queen and a Slipknot fan, I was impressed by how the 9 member wrecking crew from Iowa, had expanded their musical range. They had gone from just heavy, to more textured and melodic, but also keeping much of what Slipknot have been known for since 1999’s debut. I will be doing a post here on the first album, as it will be the 25th anniversary in June.
Anyway, Vol. 3: (was the third album I had purchased at midnight and when I got home and gave it the first of many spins, I was somewhat surprised. I say that because of Corey Taylor’s other band Stone Sour and possibly, other side projects by other members making their influences felt. The first 5 tracks were more or less straight ahead rage, with the occasional melodic vocal in there for ear candy. They had done what Queen normally does during the live experience, which is to blind and deafen the listener. Naturally, as Slipknot are a metal band that wasn’t too hard to do, with Prelude 3.0 leading things off as an intro to the album and the shows they would play, during the tour in 2004 and 2005. Then The Blister Exists slams, much like Tear It Up had done,to remind the listener that this is Slipknot and not some weird alternative band. However, weirdness was to come. Anyway, next would be Three Nil, which is just as heavy as Blister and both songs having a melodic chorus and screaming verses.
Next is the first single entitled Duality, which is the most accessible song for radio without being a ballad. Corey Taylor does both melodic vocals for the chorus, along with some screaming throughout parts of both verse and choruses. Also, during the verses the lyrics are spoken in a deep voice. Duality is track 4 and to that point, singles were always track 4 and that tradition would be broken, in 2019.
Next is Opium of the People and it is also full of thrash and even has guitar shredding , much like Blister during the breakdown. It’s not bad, but it’s not a great song either. Track 6 is where things get really interesting, with an acoustic track called Circle, which has a folky type feel to it to my ears and I don’t mind that. What makes the song interesting is how it ends, with the time signature changing from a either 3/4 or 6/8, to a straight ahead 4/4 time signature to end it.
Track 7 (Welcome) is a rather boring Slipknot lesson in heavy to me, but the next track and onward are where things get back to being interesting. Vermilion is the first track where we really get to hear how the time away from each other, has taken things to a new level. Circle may have been an acoustic trip, but this is a song which is almost symphonic in nature. The acoustic counterpart which comes later on also has keyboards as strings and Corey singing. Either way, this song is where Slipknot switch from their regular masks to waring death masks on stage. To my knowledge, Vermilion, Pt. 2 has never been played live, but it was remixed in 2006.
Next is Pulse of the Maggots, which starts with a military siren, crowd noises, a marching sound and Corey delivering a rallying speech, all of which is on tape when the song is played live. The computerized voice asking “do you understand?” sounds rather scary and obviously, robotic. In fact, this was the first track people had heard off of this album before Duality in March 2004.
Before I Forget is another single and live staple of the Slipknot set list and why not? It has a heavy chugging verse and a melodic chorus. I have already mentioned the second part to Vermilion, so let’s move on.
The Nameless goes from heavy, to nearly sounding like The Beatles and back again. It was played live in 2004 and 2005, but it wasn’t played at either of the two shows I had attended. Next is The Virus of Life and it sounds as creepy as you would guess it does. Corey even does some rather low-pitched cackling at the end along with some sounds like hocking up something or even throwing up. I’m actually not surprised as the guys in Slipknot enjoyed all sorts of things like setting each other on fire, trying to make each other puke and all sorts of extreme shenanigans, if you can call it that. Then again, Members jump off stage and hurt themselves constantly so, that is just Slipknot.
Finally, we have a shortened version of a track called Danger – Keep Away, which doesn’t have much to it except for harmony vocals, drums and keyboards. The full length version appears on the deluxe version of the album and if you think Queen can get weird, you ain’t heard nothing yet. We hear much the same as the album version, but everything else sounds completely different with another member (possibly Clown) doing the bulk of the lead vocals. You can say the song is in a couple of different time signatures with this version and like I said, you have to hear it to believe it.
There are two songs which ended up as b-sides and bonus tracks called Don’t Get Close, which was the second track on the Duality CD single and Scream, which was the B-side to the CD single to Vermilion. I prefer the latter of the two, but that’s just me. They both start off the second disk of the 2005 deluxe version and Australian Tour Addition respectively, both with a similar running order.
Vol. 3 was produced by Rick Rubin and was recorded in The Mansion, where Harry Houdini was erroneously said to have resided at one point, but was found not to have lived there, according to Wikipedia and is now owned by Rick Rubin himself. Rick recorded a bunch of bands there and we know his work with all sorts of people, from Slayer to The Cult, to Johnny Cash and after Slipknot, he worked with LINKEN PARK and Metallica, among others. Of course, we cant forget Queen and his involvement with the 1991 Ruin Remix of We Will Rock You, which is kinda fun.
Slipknot had decided to add guitar solos for the first time on Vol. 3 and it was not a surprise to me as much, because of what I had heard with Stone Sour on the 2002 debut album. The only thing I didn’t like was the sound of the drums, as they sounded rather small. Corey had a high scream, but the drums did not have any heaviness to them at all. If it was some other band besides Slipknot I could let this go, but this was the 9 masked metal destructors from Iowa.
In a sense, Vol. 3 reminds me of how Queen had fully arrived. With Queen and Queen II they were heavy albums for the most part. However, you knew that there was more to Queen than just hard rock and with Sheer Heart Attack, they had given us the full range at the time and had held nothing back, including songs from all 4 members. With Slipknot, it was simply melodic vocals which came more to the front on Vol. 3 and which were limited on Slipknot and Iowa, as the intent was on being heavy and expressing copious amounts of rage.
Another feature of Vol. 3 is a lack of profanity, which admittedly I was surprised to hear, but I didn’t mind that. I also get why there were no swearword on this album, to show that Slipknot are capable of writing songs with clean language, but the bad words would return on the next albums going forward.
Vol. 3 would also be the second last album with bassist Paul Gray, with All Hope Is Gone being the last Slipknot album he would play on and contribute songs and song ideas for. Then, Paul was found dead of an overdose of morphine and fentanyl on May 24 2010. I remember it because his death was a week or so after Ronnie James Dio passed away. It also hit me hard because I had met all 9 of the classic members of Slipknot. Vol. 3 was drummer Joey Jordison’s second last album for the band, before he was fired in 2013 and passed in July 2021. Unfortunately, I could feel a change in Slipknot and of course, I didn’t know it at the time as I am not a clairvoyant. However, you know when you could tell that something is about to happen but you can’t explain why, because there are simply no words? It’s like before Freddie passed and I had known that something was wrong, but I had no idea what it was, because I and everybody else in the world didn’t know what he was dealing with and the fact that Queen didn’t tour, wasn’t what set off alarm bells for me. I just felt and heard something in the music and the tone. With Slipknot, I think that it was the expansion of their range and the fact that members had other bands like Stone Sour and Murderdols among them. Another factor was that the band began to talk more to radio and the press, about the band more openly and on the surface, things were all right in the land of Knot.
Anyway, Vol. 3 is still a great album in its own right and one which kept me holding onto Queen and why wouldn’t it? There is more to hear than just screaming and thrashing, with more textured songs and most importantly, melody and guitar solos edging their way in. Of course, being the third album it had pointed the way forward even more than Iowa had done, just like Sheer Heart Attack had done and like the Queen album, outside influences made their way into Vol. 3 for Slipknot too. Altho, I wouldn’t compare it to Radiohead as that sounds weird and another band already did a song, which sounds like pre-OK Computer Radiohead in 2000, but that is for another post.
The tour for Vol. 3 was lengthy and Slipknot came to Toronto twice and I was lucky enough to go and see both shows. The first one was in Mississauga on January 13 2005 and the other was at what used to be called Air Canada Centre, now Scotiabank Arena on October 25 2005. Both shows had issues, with the singer for opening band Killswitch Engage having blown out his voice and them playing a shortened set. Slipknot did their set, but without playing my favourite song Eyeless, but my main issue was the sound and I couldn’t hear Corey properly. The second show in October 2005 didn’t have a member as guitarist Jim Root had injured himself, while mountain biking (according to Corey Taylor) as he said that he got an email from Jim about that. This was the same arena where Queen and Adam played on October 8th last year and now that I think about it, I wonder if the sound seems to be from one place. I’ve been there to see Alanis Morissette in May 1999, Korn in December 2002 and Slipknot in October 2005. After the tour, Corey went back to Stone Sour and Jim went with him, while other members had also scattered to do their own thing before getting back together in 2007.
Anyway, I have given Vol. 3 yet another listen and everything I have said here, was not forgotten. In fact, it was a reinforced reminder of why I like this album, but not as much as the first two by the 9 member demolition crew known as Slipknot..
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