Slipknot Release New Album, Still Wear Silly Masks

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. After the jump, we look at the reactions to the new album by famous Iowans Slipknot, whose album All Hope Is Gone arrives in stores today.

• “Happily, Slipknot can pull in these directions and still maintain a new standard of bone-crunching intensity. There are louder metal bands in the world, for sure, but the Iowan nine-piece continue to make the most noise.” [The Observer]

• “Sure, there’s some navel-gazing: the power ballad ‘Snuff,’ one of several tracks that continue Vol. 3’s move into more melodic drama, tackles a personal trauma that Taylor can’t bring himself to name. But Hope’s fiercest tunes–the bludgeoning, math-rocky ‘Butcher’s Hook’ and the sludgy, atonal ‘Gehenna’–find Slipknot’s usual self-loathing and internal hostility becoming even heavier and more powerful when it’s turned outward.” [Spin]

• “The group’s development makes a lot of sense, because the members simply can’t target the ‘rebellious high-school freshman’ demographic forever. In the end, this album is definitely a step in the right direction for the band members, but they haven’t quite grown up yet.” [The Daily Iowan]

• “In that sense, the slyest thing about this project is the way its sound and vision argue against the album’s title. From the instrumental arrangements to the layered levels of meaning in the lyrics, Slipknot Vol. 4 comes across as smarter, deeper, and tougher than ever. And if that’s not a cause for hope, we don’t know what is.” [Revolver]