ShareSlipknot performing their We Are Not Your Kind Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Tuesday 21st January 2020
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Its twenty one years since heavy metal band Slipknot blazed out of Iowa with their eponymous debut album and last night they were at the Motorpoint Arena to promote their sixth studio release, We Are Not Your Kind.
With their fans affectionately known as ‘maggots’ and nicely warmed up with a taped version of AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), on the first sound of the canons, the huge curtain dropped to the floor to reveal enigmatic front man Corey Taylor as he exploded into new song Unsainted, which was backed with a recording of a ghostly children’s choir
With a line up that also included three guitarists, a keyboard player, DJ, powerhouse drummer Jay Weinberg (son of fabled Bruce Springsteen sticks man, Max) and two percussionists beating huge stacks of what looked like luminous oil drums, they launched into Disasterpeice from their 2001 album Iowa and Eyeore from their debut album, much to the delight of the ‘maggots’ who seemed to favour their older material.
A career spanning set list leaves no fan disappointed as the crowd punched the air to New Abortion, a song given a rare outing, whilst the splendid Nero Forte rocked darkly and the innovative Solway Firth took the sound somewhere brooding and haunting with Gary Numan type synths.
Slipknot are also undoubtedly thrillingly theatrical, with the band members all wearing masks. Taylor’s horror mask in particular makes him look as if he has stepped from the set of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Along with the fire shooting guitars, computer graphics and the use of turntables, it was a night when Slipknot showed that they are as relevant to heavy metal today as they were when they first emerged.
Hits such as Before I Forget and Psychosocial immediately had the crowd on side and they sang every line of Vermilion, Birth Of The Crowd and all time Slipknot classic, Wait And Bleed. During Eyeless and main set closer Duality the crowd’s singing was almost louder than the band who were playing at full thunderous throttle.
For the encore, there was a brilliant (Sic), a crushing version of People = Shit and the bellow-along angry anthem, Duality, showing that their brilliant headlining performance at Download last year was no fluke.