SLIPKNOT Iowa (CD)

If Slipknot was the fuse, Iowa was the detonation. Released in 2001 at the peak of the band's creative rage, this is the record where nine people from Des Moines decided they were done being accessible.

Heavier, uglier, and more confrontational than their debut, Iowa is the album that separated the Slipknot fans from the Slipknot faithful. The nu-metal tag barely contains it. There's death metal in the riffs, industrial in the production, and something genuinely unhinged running underneath all of it. Corey Taylor has said recording it nearly broke him, and you can hear that in every track. For a generation of alternative music kids in the early 2000s, this was a gateway, not just into heavier music, but into the idea that music could be an act of catharsis rather than entertainment. It still holds that power.

CD, full length album, USA.

Fans of: KORN, METALLICA, STONE SOUR, MUDVAYNE, COAL CHAMBER, SYSTEM OF A DOWN