We Are Not Your Kind by Slipknot | Album Review
Re-visiting the metal band’s 2019 release in anticipation of The End, So Far
With the announcement of Slipknot’s newest album The End, So Far set to drop on September 30th. I felt it was timely to look back at their last album, We Are Not Your Kind. Released back in August 2019, the heavy metal madmen set off to make an album that sees the band at its most creative peak. Constant experimentation with their trademark style of brutal production alongside a slew of melody-driven tracks makes for one of Slipknot’s better albums in recent years and one I’ve come to thoroughly enjoy.
On We Are Not Your Kind, the band finds a solid balance between incredibly aggressive metal and melody-driven, chorus-heavy tracks. The entire mood is played out nicely throughout all 14 songs. Bangers like “Nero Forte” and “Critical Darling” juxtapose their white-hot intensity with somber, eerie tracks like “Spiders”. Nevertheless, this album is a pure adrenaline ride from start to finish, thanks in part to the band’s instrumentation which sounds much more refined.
Guitarists Mick Thompson and Jim Root shred their way through We Are Not Your Kind. Their riffs and solos take the cake, such as on the outro of “Red Flag”. How they manage to constantly experiment with the fretboard is beyond me. Drummer Jay Weinberg and percussionists Shawn Crahan and (at the time new member) Michael Pfaff bring Slipknot’s signature style of pummeling percussions to new levels, like on the opening of “Orphan” or the banging drums of “Birth of the Cruel”.
There’s more of a reliance on creating an atmosphere this time around, thanks in part to DJ Sid Wilson and keyboardist Craig Thompson who bring a slew of electronics to the album. In songs like “My Pain”, the use of glockenspiels paints a creepy, foreboding picture. The various interludes like “Insert Coin” and “What’s Next” provide moments of brevity, surrounded by filtered synths and acoustic guitars that segway back into the madness of the main album.
And of course, I can’t forget lead singer Corey Taylor’s impeccable vocals throughout the whole album. Switching back and forth between his clean singing and guttural screams. He hasn’t sounded this good in years and it shows. He reaches Iowa levels of growls on songs like “Solway Firth” one minute then belts his heart out on the chorus of “Unsainted” the next. While he’s always balanced both sides of his voice on older albums, here he sounds much more refined.
Lyrically, I’m not one to consider Slipknot inherently deep when it comes to their subject matter, but according to Corey Taylor We Are Not Your Kind is billed as the band’s most personal album and in some ways, it does feel like that. Bouts of self-loathing and cynicism permeate most of the album, assumingly tied to Taylor’s own personal life. While the faster, aggressive songs show off the band’s more misanthropic, nihilist thoughts. A bulk of the album exemplifies Taylor’s own personal self-destruction.
In songs like “Nero Forte”, Taylor expresses his dissatisfaction with the person(s) that used and lied to him. (“I’m never enough. You bleed me dry, using me up. Dissatisfied and used another key to the empty spot in you.”). The aptly named “Red Flag” and the creepy “Spiders” goes further into looking out for the red flags in people. The band seemingly set fire to the pyre as they set their enemies ablaze (literally or figuratively) on “A Liar’s Funeral”. Corey’s voice as he growls “Burn, burn, burn the liar!” matches perfectly with the song’s droning guitars and booming percussion.
Corey dives more into his mental state and self-image in songs like “Orphan”. The death metal-influenced track is focused on the singer’s own loneliness and his chaotic conclusion (“You really wanna know who the fuck I am? I am the orphan, the one who killed your world.”). “Not Long for This World” shines a light on Taylor’s own fascination with death, calling it an ends to his means, his final resort.
On the album’s hellish closer “Solway Firth”, Corey dives deep into how he needs no one to feel sorry for him. (“I don’t need you to do it for me, I don’t need you to understand. I don’t need you to hide it from me.”). He explains how he’s had to fake his own happiness for others, his screaming vocals pair nicely with the song’s subject matter. Just when you think the song is over, Slipknot pulls you back in with the song’s epic conclusion as Corey screams: “You want a real smile? I haven’t smiled in years.” A fitting way to end this adrenaline-pumping album.
We Are Not Your Kind pushed Slipknot to experiment with their signature heavy metal sound in ways not quite seen since 2003's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). The balance between their aggressive side and melodic side is structured rather well, each song creates its own vibe and atmosphere that ties into the album’s lyrical matter. Upon release, critics called We Are Not Your Kind some of Slipknot’s best work in years, and I can agree. This album is certainly up my alley in terms of metal music and overall production.
As we gear up for the follow up The End, So Far, you can find elements of We Are Not Your Kind such as the album’s use of melodies and experimentation with guitars and sound on the upcoming album’s singles such as “The Dying Song” and “Yen”. I have a feeling that The End, So Far will build on what We Are Not Your Kind offered back in 2019 and have Slipknot push themselves further in terms of production, which just makes the upcoming release all the more exciting.
Final Rating: 8/10
Favourite Tracks: Unsainted, Birth of the Cruel, Nero Forte, Red Flag, Orphan, Not Long for This World, Solway Firth
Stream We Are Not Your Kind by Slipknot
