05/26/2022
We had the absolute honor of photographing the mighty Slipknot this past Tuesday night at MVP Arena and what a blast it was. There's a reason these guys took over the world and that takeover isn't ending any time soon.
Here is our review of their performance:
After 20+ years of putting out some of the most blistering, frenetic, and focused music the heavy metal world has ever seen while cultivating an increasingly chaotic live show befitting such sounds, the all-powerful Slipknot hardly need an introduction. But I’ll give them one anyway. Coming off of two eclectic, mood-setting performances by Knotfest openers Ho99o9 and Cypress Hill, the crowd at MVP Arena waited with baited breath and battered hearts for the arrival of The Nine. The stage was cloaked — literally — with a nearly all-black sheet, all-black except one giant word across the center: “SLIPKNOT.” And when that sheet finally dropped, “all out fu***ng life” ensued.
Screaming out in a hail of pyrotechnics and smoke, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor ferociously guided the crowd through the 1-2 punch of early classics “Disasterpiece” and “Wait and Bleed,” while the bone-rattling pounding of drummer Jay Weinberg and dual percussionists Shawn “Clown” Crahan and “Tortilla Man” Michael Pfaff hardly let a single person in the building catch a breath.
This is exactly the kind of performance fans have come to expect from a Slipknot show, except — honestly — better than ever before. This is because Slipknot are somehow doing the impossible: playing with that unmistakable, refined tightness that a band only gains through decades of honing in their craft, yet still maintaining the energy of a hungry young band with many years ahead of them. It’s no wonder they’ve taken the world by storm the way that they have.
After an intense start fueled by some of the band’s early greats, the ‘Knot pivoted to a mid-set stretch filled with bombastic performances of some of their later and moodier hits, including “Unsainted,” “The Chapeltown Rag,” “The Devil In I,” and even the tragically under-performed “Dead Memories.” The great thing about Slipknot being this deep into their career is that their catalog has become quite massive. They have so much to pull from that they can shift moods at a moment’s notice, and shift them they do. One minute, guitarists Mick Thomson and Jim Root are plucking soulfully along to the tragic, ballady drones of “Snuff,” and the next minute “Clown” is swinging and smashing a flaming baseball bat to the nu metal soundscape masterfully provided by DJ/sampler duo Sid Wilson and Craig “133” Jones. Again, I state: this band is doing the impossible, and they’re doing it with style.
And of course, no Slipknot show would be complete without the set staple of the “Spit It Out” jump, a crowd-pleasing moment where the entire audience kneels in anticipation until Corey Taylor commands every man, woman, and child in the building to, well, “jump the f**k up!” Calling this moment earthquake-like would admittedly be a bit cliché, but the fact is that this 100% shook the building like an earthquake. And it was amazing.
To say that the Albany, NY crowd got their money’s worth would be an understatement. Slipknot are on a whole other level at this point in their long and storied career, firing on all cylinders and entertaining at every level. Plus, their huge catalog allows every Slipknot show to give you something a little different than the last, meaning that even when you think you know what to expect, you never really know what to expect. And this reviewer, now eight Slipknot shows deep over these years, can promise you that.
Check out the full article on Chasing The Light Art's website at https://chasingthelightart.com/heavy-metal-slipknot-concert/!