Last Saturday night saw a year’s worth of anticipation erupt in an hour and a half of moshpit finest as Iowa’s nine-headed masked monster, Slipknot, graced the capital in the second of two O2 shows concluding the UK leg of their 25th anniversary Here Comes the Pain tour.
Before that commotion came a nice warm-up set from Glaswegian metalcore merchants Bleed From Within, who really brought the energy and enthusiasm with songs such as ‘Hands of Sin’, ‘Into Nothing’, and, from their upcoming seventh album, it was Zenith, ‘In Place of Your Halo’. Frontman Scott Kennedy was especially appreciative to be sharing a stage with one of his influences, remarking how he would have scoffed at the idea two decades ago. Metalcore is kinda a hit-ans-miss subgenre for me, but BfW did it, and themselves, sufficient justice with their set.
Then came the Nine—and the promised pain.
I’ve been to gigs of bands that would be considered even more extreme and “true” amongst the metalligensia, yet the audience reaction at those shows was positively sedate compared to that for the Knot. From the moment the riffage of ‘(sic)’ kicked in, the crowd erupted into a throng that never fully relented. To put it another way, even those not in the actual circle pit were swept around the floor, ending up in spots quite different to those at which they started!
“We’re playing nothing after 1999,” frontman Corey Taylor declared, and he and the rest of the band kept their word, the setlist consisting of material from, and around the time of, their self-titled major-label debut. Every track, with the odd exception of ‘Diluted’, got an airing, from the League onslaughts of ‘Eyeless’ and ‘Liberate’ to slower, moodier numbers like ‘Tattered and Torn’, ‘Prosthetics’, and set closer ‘Scissors’. Of course, abiding setlist favourites ‘Wait and Bleed’, ‘Purity’, and ‘Spit It Out’ also got respectable renditions.
The band were on top form, with Mick Thomson and Jim Root bringing the riffs, Eloy Casagrande and Alessandro “Vman” Venturella proving worthy replacements for late drummer Joey Jordison and late bassist Paul Gray, respectively, Sid Wilson stealing the spotlight with his turntabling and crowd-rousing, Michael “Tortilla Man” Pfaff adding extra percussion and hijinks, mystery member “Samples” filling the spot previously occupied by Craig “The Gimp” Jones, and Shaun “Clown” Crahan being, as ever, Shaun. Of course, Corey “The Great Big Mouth” Taylor didn’t disappoint with his trademark vocals, going from bellow to mellow, and back again, without issue, though, by contrast to all the other times I’ve seen the band, his crowd-addressing moments had a more unabashedly complementary, less confrontational air this time around, welcoming the fans who were there from day one and all those who came after for their support and attendance.
As callbacks go, however, it was hard to top the jumpsuits and masks, evocative of that earlier era, Corey’s red-eye accentuated homage to his first disguise being especially striking.
Like others who’ve commented on these shows, I definitely would’ve welcomed a double set, the second (or maybe first) consisting of a best-of compilation cribbed from all their subsequent albums. As things stand, having not seen them live since the late ’00s, it was great to make their reacquaintance.
~MRDA~
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