Live Review : Slipknot + Bleed From Within @ Co-op Live Arena, Manchester on December 17th 2024
Every band reaches a tipping point, where their rapid ascendancy slows, and they enter that “selective appeal" phase. It is the law of diminishing returns, the moment where the number of fans losing interest due to age, indifference and evolution of musical tastes outweigh the accumulation of new devotees. It is the point where stadium-sized bands recede to arenas, where those bothering Apollo's shift to Academies and festival headliners become special guests or even worse inhabit the dreaded "Legends" slot, an abomination designed to preserve the egos of artists yet to fully comprehend their decline. What is astonishing about Slipknot is that 25 years in they are still accelerating. They have a momentum that continues to gather both pace and followers to this very day. For some inexplicable reason, this group of mask-wearing grandad's well into their fifties are still able to speak to the freaks, geeks and disenfranchised of the generations below them.
When a band sets out to celebrate the significant anniversary of the landmark release, the given wisdom is that they have sussed that this is a far more proficient way of shifting tickets than relying on new material. They are filling the coffers via appealing to those fans who have drifted off, with a nostalgia-fuelled Time Machine back to a moment in their lives when they were not shackled by mortgages, children and respectable jobs. As ever Slipknot are up ending these conventions. Tonight's audience is young, really young. The vast majority of people packed into every nook and cranny of this brand-spanking new arena were not Slipknot fans when their venerated eponymous dropped in 1999. Hell, the vast majority of people here were not born when the album hit the shelves. They are therefore not present to revisit past glories, they are here to witness afresh how it all began. Tonight's audience is made up of those Slipknot have purloined in the past 25 years and most importantly continue to attract. When Cory states that the show is as much intended for those seeing Slipknot for the first time as it is for those who have stood the course, it is obvious that the former applies to the vast majority of people in the room.
If boiler suits have coattails, then Bleed from Within are hanging onto Slipknot’s for all their might. To most of the Maggots upfront jostling for their positions, they will seem to be a new act emerging out of nowhere to claim this coveted support slot. What they don’t see however is the two-decade-long back story. Bleed from Within are metal’s perennial “always the bridesmaid and never the bride”. They have been diligently plugging away at it since 2005, dispensing decent release after decent release but never quite capturing the public's imagination enough to make any significant inroads. Since 2013’s rather dandy "Uprising" it has always felt it was going to be the next one that broke them or the next one or the next one. The way that they naturally take to the arena and the affirmation that they are afforded by the vast crowd, gives real hope that their moment may finally be dawning.
Sensing a bevy of new souls to enrapture, they concentrate specifically on what they have produced this decade. Opener ‘Hands of Sin’ and penultimate track ‘In Place of Your Halo’ hail from their upcoming new album. Both give tantalising glimpses into a probable future for this long-suffering and hard-working outfit. It is still the metalcore of old, but it is cleaner, smoother and custom-built for tens of thousands of voices to scream the lyrics back at them. They have earned their spurs more than most, but this tour has the air of the moment where they finally transcend. The moment when all that promise finally comes to fruition. They thank Slipknot profusely because, in Scott Kennedy's words they would not be playing in a band without them. But the main thing to thank them for is showing the world that Bleed from Within are now arena-ready. Yes we did think we reached this point many times before, but this finally finally could be it.
The atmosphere as we build towards the 9.00 PM start time for Slipknot is frankly astonishing. A nu-metal greatest hits playlist is sung along to with gusto and the sprawling standing area cavorts with movement as thousands upon thousands jockey for the best positions. It is hard to remember a show more highly anticipated, especially with a fanbase who were predominantly not there when the record being venerated this evening was released. What becomes apparent is this evening is a rare opportunity to witness the Slipknot of old. That anarchistic chaotic force of nature that forced itself into our lives twenty-five years ago. It may feel weird to say this for an arena show, but this is a much more scaled-back endeavour than we are used to. Slipknot's last few concert setups have felt like a distorted and perverted version of Super Mario, with levels, platforms and hanging drumkits. Tonight everything is much closer together and on one level. Rather than give them a vast playground to cavort upon, this evening the set-up brings the band together in a collective space. For those not present on the early legendary shows this is a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into the rudimentary chaos that birthed this band.
Initially, it seems like they are going to present the album in its recorded order, ‘'(Sic)’, ‘Eyeless’ and ‘Wait and Bleed’ are ferociously unleashed as they are on the record. The reception is utterly incredible. The standing area becomes flowing channels of reverberating flesh as dozens of pits spring up down the length of the building. It is like a tank of pent-up kinetic energy has been uncorked and the air frazzles with adorning excitement. Corey Taylor certainly senses something very special is happening. He spends a lot of time talking to the crowd, whipping up the already ecstatic energy but also eulogising about the support that has always been forthcoming from this country and this city. Early on he makes it clear that everything being played this evening will come from 1999. He playfully apologises to those fair-weather fans who may well be less au fait with the first album. If there are those disappointed with the singularity of the set list, they don't show it. Every track is greeted like it is a gargantuan anthem, and it is fantastic to see little-played tracks such as ‘Get This’, ‘Me Inside’ and ‘No Life’ (the latter not heard live since 2000) get the veneration that they so deserve.
Slipknot this evening are a frantic swirl of incendiary power. They gambol across the playing area with invigorated spirit and wilful abandonment. The stage is a never-ending blur of constant movement. They have embraced this return to their roots and are reliving it with every fibre of their collective being. For a band this far into their career it is endearing to see so much close interaction between the members. They feed off each other (and the audience), ramming up the tumultuous disorder as they sprint through the album. This feels less like the slick choreographed shows we have become used to and more like an unruly celebration of what they once were. The physicality of the performance of course takes his toil. The set is divided into a labyrinth of pithy vignettes of two or three songs and then short interludes for weary bones to be rested. During those down moments, Sid mans the decks, spinning contorted versions of ‘Tattered & Torn’ and ‘Frail Limb Nursery’. Even with regulatory rest periods, Corey looks like he's pushing himself to the limit. He enters for the encore limping and is open about the amount of discomfort that he is in, but this is Slipknot and discomposure and irritation are central components of their lexicon, “it's fine, I've played on one leg before” he heroically deadpans.
Everything on the original release and most of the oddities from the subsequent plentiful re-issues gets aired this evening, providing a parade of deep cuts that would please even the most ferment Slipknot completist. Whilst not taking too many liberties with the authentic nature of the endeavour they do move things around to make the show flow better. The biggest shift is transplanting ‘Spit it Out’ and ‘Surfacing’ from their early door album positioning to being part of the encore. It makes complete sense as they still are, to this very day, the cornerstones of a Slipknot performance. Both are utterly utterly incredible. The words to the former are, pun intended, spat back to Corey by twenty-two thousand voices whilst the latter sees the various pits expand in voluminous intensity until they mesh together into a single human cyclone.
There is a pretence that we are done, but those who know the album biblically already foresee that there is one more to come. “Do you want to go darker with Slipknot?” goades Corey and the answer is of course in the affirmative. The version we get of the record’s closing number, ‘Scissors’, is extraordinary. It is a drawn-out, penetrating cacophony of twisted noise. It creeps out of the stalls slow and pendulous at first but continually growing in momentum. Corey sits himself on the steps as his “brothers” eck out every monstrously maudlin note. ‘Scissors’ is already a pretty creepy number, but here its eerie unnerving nature is magnified tenfold. It just builds in a fog of sinister malevolence until suddenly it breaks in a flurry of discombobulated fury. But they are not done and its outro is as spine-chillingly discombobulating as its intro. What we witness here is a completely different side to Slipknot, the free-flowing anarchy is temporarily put on hold and instead what emerges is a musically literate Slipknot. Still firmly antiestablishment but more measured and cohesive in their lawness mayhem.
It is a stunning finale to an absolute masterclass in mainstream rebellion. Slipknot embrace the other. Unlike any other act out there, they personify riotous intent and the inherent desire to be different. They channel in on that outsider aesthetic and for every generation of ill-fitting, awkward societal interlopers they provide an outlet. Corey’s parting shot is to state that they have been with us for 25 years and that will be with us for another 25. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Slipknot will be the band that bucks the trend, continuously accelerating in terms of influence and magnetic attraction. Here is to another 25 years of unabandoned chaos.
I just love Metal. I love it all. The bombastity of symphonic, the brutality of death, the rousing choruses of power, the nihilistic evil of black, the pounding atmospherics of doom, the whirling time changes of prog, the faithful familiarity of trad, the other worldlyness of post, the sheer unrefined power of thrash. I love it all!