Slipknot's third album titled "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" was released on May 25, 2004.
It came out three years after their breakout album "Iowa" but it was almost never born, it even almost caused the band to break up.
When everyone is fed up with each other and everyone is busy with other projects "Slipknot" "tried" to get together to record its next album.
"These are things we'd been wanting to do. Listen to that f --- ing record. It's spiritual. I love it." (Clown)
From the first moment, the band members gathered at the "Mansion" in Los Angeles (some say Houdini lived there) the chaos, dysfunction, and mowing ruled all over the place. The bassist Paul Gray who passed away on May 23, 2018, and was a significant part of the creation of the album, was drugged from heroin to the point he barely managed to record the ideas he had for the album. Singer Corey Taylor said he simply drank from the moment he woke up (not necessarily in the morning) to the moment he lost consciousness. He could not record anything for weeks. When drummer Joey Jordison arrived and saw the condition of his band members he was furious and vented his anger with drugs, while also losing himself along with the rest of the band, who were dealing with different and weird emotional loads.
The band members spent three months at the mansion while each was preoccupied with his own demons or pleasures, they avoided talking to each other or even looking each other in the eye, complete separation in an upscale mansion with insane costs. Paul was broken, disappointed, and depressed by his friends' lack of cooperation and total disintegration. He said he felt that everyone hated each other and did not tolerate each other, but he did not feel that way, he did not hate or be angry with anyone, he felt that his "family" was falling apart. There were those who also wanted to leave and spent their time on other projects like Joey's "Murderdolls", Shawn Crahan's "To My Surprise" and Corey's "Stone Sour".
(Photo: Spotify)
Just before it all fell apart, just before Corey bought a plane ticket back home and left everything behind, just before Jim Root threw everything away and did not look back, Sean took the initiative, and together with Paul and Joey they tried to connect all the band members together. They went through each one of them, and gradually, with a lot of friendly mental conversations, they tried to unite them into one team and make them feel part of a family that is going through a difficult crisis but can overcome it and reunite. The one who supported and helped with the unification process was producer Rick Rubin who was recruited to produce the album and owned the "Mansion".
There are quite a few disagreements about that !! Some argue that Rick did not contribute at all to the album and was focused on other projects, Joey claimed it was a waste of time working with a great producer “who is full of himself” and did not care about the album or the band. Corey claimed that Rick was not present at all on any of the recordings for the album and did not contribute anything to the creation of the album. But on the other hand, there were those who claimed that not only did Rick contribute to the creation of the album but he also contributed to family reunification. Sean said that Rick was the one who managed to create the initial communication between the members who did not talk to each other, he was the one who reminded them why it is worth it for them to overcome the crisis. Jim said that although Rick was not present he did contribute and improved the band's work by giving a guiding hand and marking exactly where and how to improve.
Sean summed up the process in the best way:
“The best way to describe it is salvation and rejoicing in working again. It’s like being an alcoholic and saying, ‘I need to get help.’ We knew we were gonna rebuild and we did ”
And once the bonding was made it just exploded, we think the best way to describe it is as a scene from the movie "Back to the Future" (and don't ask us which one), the scene where the crazy doctor holds in his hands the two huge cable parts that hang from the church clock and once the lightning strikes he manages to connect the cable and create the power that blows Delorian straight back into the future. The intensity of the lightning will hit you as soon as you click play on the link below, it may sound soft and pleasant at first but later you will get a deadly combination of Jim Root and Mick Thomson on guitars, with Trash Metal head, deadly and powerful drumming, dramatic transitions and screams of horror that will make you lose a heart beat from your soft and delicate heart.
(Photo: George De Sota)
Like the previous two and the next two albums, this album opens with a dramatic collection of sounds and symbols, but here the song "Prelude 3.0" immediately begins as a pleasant and caressing opening that slowly increases and even before you feel like landing on "The Blister Exists", a terrifying madness just stitched on a scene in "The Walking Dead" as the villain Nigan leads his army to crush the next target of passers-by, ruthless and exemplary cruel. We think it's one of the songs on the album that unequivocally proves that such music can not be faked or invented just to create something as a saxophone, this song proves that Slipknot creates from the gut, from the nerves in the brain, from the soul. Pump up everything they have in the body, everything it contains physically and mentally in each of them, and just put it out on the microphone, the drums, the bass, and the guitars.
The third song "Three Nil" continues its predecessor but it's hard not to think of the sentence that Corey shouts several times and is deeply etched in our minds before the countdown and Joey's insane drumming:
"Oh, I did not need to leave to stay right here"
The next section does not need to be presented, even if you are not a fan of the band for sure you have heard this anthem somewhere or came across it unintentionally, "Dualty" is a pure nerve anthem and it works, feel free to try at home in a safe environment. Corey said the song talks about his duality when he was trying to deal with the difficulties at the time when his wife left him.
The next song "Opium of the People" is completely avant-garde and gives a glimpse into other districts to which the band reaches as it tries to stretch the boundaries a bit and create new spaces.
The song "Circle" is the first song that Slipknot records for the album and consists of strings and acoustic instruments, it is also very special because it was generally written and recorded during the tour of the previous album. Corey said the song is inspired by the encounter he had with his father for the first time at the age of 30.
Let us now jump two songs forward, not that we have anything against "Welcome" or "Vermilion", just the first is a good song but we have nothing to say about it, and the second will appear later in a much more exciting performance, so if you can jump on it and come back, why?
Because now we come to the anthem of the album, in our opinion, the main song, the hydrogen bomb, the song that should have given the album its name "Pulse of the Maggots". What an opening !! A cosmic combination of drums, guitars, symbols, and one voice, clearly insane !! The song was initially called "Triggers Yearn" and Corey wrote it from a completely different direction but then Joey brought the name of the song without words and since "Maggots" is the (positive) nickname for the band's fans, Corey decided to write them a song of appreciation and appreciation.
Wait, wait, wait, do not move before we forget that "Before I Forget" comes after it is a hit in itself that even gave the band the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, This song, as they perform the song and the masks hang beside them next to them.
The following song is one of the most emotional songs of Slipknot in their entire career (perhaps after Snuff), intentionally we refer specifically to the acoustic version "Vermilion, Pt. 2". This is not just an acoustic version but a version that is a continuation of the previous part. We do not know precisely what Corey meant by a song written by Paul and Joey but feel the struggle, and the difficulty, a song that talks about love, passion, everything mixes and creates a strong emotional storm in us. This is one of the songs that every listener can interpret and feel differently Otherwise when he listens to him.
One of the genius songs on this album, "The Nameless" is a sophisticated combination of changing and unexpected dynamics, breaking parts, ups and downs, and melodic crashes that leave you speechless. Proper reception is the moment you dive underwater and when you are no longer able to breathe you rise back above the water and take a deep breath with your mouth open.
The penultimate song on the album tells the story of a male character who is obsessed with a woman, who follows her and eventually kills her out of obsession. Corey said he really likes to write from the perspective of a "voyeur," someone who stands aside and watches the things happening in front of him.
The song that closes the album "Danger - Keep Away" is a kind of slow ballad that tells the story of the whole album. Tells what the band went through during the creation of the album, the difficulties, the struggles, the hatred, and then the union and the masterpiece.
"Where have I been all this time?
Lost enslaved fatal decline
I've been waiting for this to unfold
The pieces are only as good as the whole
Severed myself from my old life
Cut off the only bright thing
What If I never saw you again?
I'd die right next to you in the end "
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