Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter

I personally do not like this as a direction for Slipknot. Songwriting seems inconsistent in quality and lacks substance in certain areas. It thematically can’t decide if it wants to be sad or aggressive in its tonality. That’s not always a bad thing in music, but when you’re hearing sad-boy pop melodies being surrounded by aggressive guitars and drums it sounds off. There seems to be an emphasis on Corey’s vocals in the mixing on the whole album, and I really don’t think this is anything close to the highlight of his career as a vocalist. His shouts just sound strained a lot of times, and his whiny melodic vocals just remind me of early 2000s boy band music. Guitar tone is too low, and the riffs really aren’t doing anything that interesting most of the time. Drums sound like a much more generic version of what was heard on the previous album, which makes it obvious that Joey is no longer in the band. If there was a bass on this, I’m sorry Mr. Newstead but I can’t hear you under these Backstreet Boys features. There’s just nothing that is notable to me on this album, and I can’t see myself coming back to it.

Edit 8/24/23: Think I was in a bad mood while reviewing this or something. I was just giving the negatives. A lot of the music is at least okay on this album, and I genuinely enjoyed the first 4 tracks along with tracks 7 and 13. The opener was hauntingly unique, and the others were filled with energy and some good ideas that I admire. This mostly sounds like Slipknot by the numbers, with some extra pop elements that I just don't like. Mix was too focused on vocals, which made the album sound worse.

aw who cares. nobody reads this shit anyway