Artist: Slipknot
Album Title: The End So Far
Release Date: September 30th, 2022
Score: 6/10
First Impressions: This is Slipknot's 7th studio album; these guys have been in the game since before alot of us were even born. That said: this is....dare I say it, meh. It is a mid-grade album with some absolute bangers at best. I feel that it was missing a certain cohesiveness many fans were craving. There are quite a few tracks that show off Corey's clean vocals, but I don't believe they compliment him very much in terms of pitch and harmony. As Jim Root stated in an interview, the album is missing that spark, that signature Slipknot flare, and feels a bit rushed. It's like when you type an entire 10 page term paper in a few hours; it may have started off decent but by the end you're just dying to finish it. As I said before, there are definitely some bangers. 'Hive Mind' and 'Medicine for the Dead' are easily the standout tracks, other than the singles which weren't 100% amazing. There were some fundamental differences with the structure of these songs. Some of the words were jumbled together in such a way that required you to actually read the lyrics to understand them. The pacing in a few of the tracks, like 'Acidic' or 'H377', really threw me off.
Likes and Dislikes:
*sigh*. Let's start with a few good things: there are alot of heavy moments that attempt to make up for the lost footing on this release. The stand out tracks practically carry the entire album and will be in rotation for quite a while. There's alot to dissect in terms of the bad: some of the harmonies in the cleans were a little difficult to listen to. Putting 'Adderall' as the first track was...not wise in my opinion; I get the sentiment but, that seemed like more of a bonus or middle/towards the end kind of song, if it belonged at all. There's a lack of emotion that really takes to wind out of all the sails, and makes the album pretty stale.
Favorite Tracks: Hive Mind, Medicine for the Dead, Warranty
Wrap-up: I'm not gonna say "I miss the old Slipknot", but I wish the boys had made a few different decisions on this one. There's a few good riffs and moments that make up for the lack luster attitude of the rest of the album, but overall it wasn't a pleasant experience. Experimenting is fine, but they've lost the plot a bit; a scrappy, jumbled mess, this album was pretty off. We all love this band, and they've been around so long we all have predetermined expectations. Do they owe us anything? Nah. Do I think they could have done better? Indeed.
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