When Slipknot announced their seventh album, The End, So Far, released this Friday, the 30th, the maggots ( fanbase ) went crazy, believing, with good reason, that this would be the band's last. Corey Taylor took a few days to explain that the group was far from ending their career , but that a cycle was closing to give way to a new one. The End, So Far is Slipknot's last album with Roadrunner Records, the label that signed the group in 1998.
The partnership had its ups and downs, just like almost everything in the careers and personal lives of the band and its members. Abuse, loss, grief, overdoses, divorces, breakups… The list is immense. All these difficulties and the demons that accompanied them were transformed into music in Taylor's voice. With extremely personal songs, Slipknot's visceral sound and tone are recognizable from miles away.
Well, now the band hits the reset and tests new limits. The lyrics, once inspired by the band members' personal experiences, transform into something bigger than them. The End, So Far features lyrics about fans and their desires, about the most common feelings in us, human beings, and our greatest flaws.
This change may have been influenced by the fact that the band, for the first time in a long time, is in a good and peaceful phase. The members have worked on their internal relationships and are doing well in their personal lives. Corey said in an interview with The Zane Lowe Show that the band was able to see each member as they truly are and accept each other with the love that has been built up over all these years. In The End, So Far, we have, for the first time, a Slipknot free from drama, both personal and professional.
The band's chaotic sound remains heavy and coherent in this work, but now it has a more organized and even melodic tone, as in the opening track, "Adderall." The opening is smooth and could prepare you for what's to come, but Slipknot, in their most mature form, knows more than ever how to surprise the listener.
Next up is the trio of previously released singles: “The Dying Song (Time to Sing),” a punch to the ears; “The Chapeltown Rag,” which celebrates the band’s legacy with a classic Slipknot sound; and “Yen,” a heavy, dark, and cathartic love song that, according to the vocalist himself (via The Zane Lowe Show ), was inspired by his first healthy relationship, with his current wife Alicia Dove .
Taylor has stated in several interviews that The End, So Far is a heavier continuation of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) . And indeed, the sounds present in the group's third studio album return in this seventh album, but on the other hand, the sound here brings a visceral tone that Slipknot had not yet explored. For example, "Acidic" shows how this time away from Slipknot has transported the vocalist to other projects, such as his solo work and even Stone Sour , which is currently on hiatus, and has brought out the smoothness and flexibility of his voice.
Another song that showcases the group's previously unexplored versatility and depth is "H377," which appears near the end of the album as the 10th of 12 tracks. Frenetic, powerful, and potentially the new direction the band should take from here on out.
It's still unknown what will happen to the group, only that this is not the end of Slipknot. With a new record label or independent production, the band proved with The End, So Far, that they have a lot to experiment with before their next new release.
Always busy, the nine members of the band are currently on tour and preparing to come to Latin America in December for Knotfest . After this tour, it will be possible to see who the band has truly chosen to be and how this cycle will definitively end.
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