Slipknot exists as an exception to nearly every rule. As one of the most hardcore bands to ever have a release debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, take home a Grammy and sell out stadiums worldwide, these nine masked Iowans have turned a cult into a religion — all amid tragedy, inner-strife and lineup changes. “The End, So Far,” which was released on Sept. 30, is the band’s final release on Roadrunner Records, Slipknot’s longtime distribution partner. Although albums made to fulfill contractual obligations are often phoned-in, Slipknot revisits their complicated career under Roadrunner to exit the partnership under a narrative of catharsis. Allowing fans to get excited about the future while revisiting each of the band’s beloved eras, the album is an uncompromising statement from a band that has transcended its brutal roots over the last two decades.
While all six Slipknot albums have begun with an interlude song, “Adderall” is the first break in that pattern, turning what sounds like grand, western-influenced rock into a full-blown ballad. No one is accustomed to hearing this music from nine masked metalheads, but its subversion of expectations is a master stroke, kicking off an album that many doubted would contain anything truly new with something far beyond left field. Even if “Adderall” isn’t strictly an interlude, its foreboding, steadily crescendoing atmosphere simmers, commanding the listener to salivate at the impending explosion of classic Slipknot extremity on “The Dying Song (Time to Sing).”
The album’s lead single, “The Chapeltown Rag,” stands with “The Dying Song” as the only tracks to critique society at large, touching on the world’s unhealthy codependency on misinformation-infested social media platforms. Whereas “Adderall” sees Slipknot move entirely away from heaviness, “The Chapeltown Rag” embraces the innovative extremity of contemporary metal in completely new ways, mixing blast beats with Sid Wilson’s otherworldly turntable scratches. Apart from blast beats, Jay Weinberg’s virtuosic drumming extends to drumline-styled calls to arms and blistering fills that add adrenaline to every transition.
However, this downhill momentum soon dissipates, as Slipknot has never been a band to stay in one sonic pocket for too long. The album’s third single, “Yen,” explores more subdued, eerie atmospheres similar to “De Sade,” the 11th track, as both focus on the painful side of love — how it brings out fears and injuries that make the narrator feel broken and put back together again. Combining angst with horror-movie flair, “Yen” calls to mind every Slipknot ballad that came before it, representing a shift in the flow of “The End, So Far,” but not in the band’s songwriting style.
From there, “The End, So Far” gets in weird in an expect-the-unexpected way, acrobatically leaping from teeth-baring ragers (“Hive Mind”) to gothic anti-ballads (“Medicine for the Dead”) and radio-ready heavy rock (“Heirloom”). Even with the tonal variety in these tracks, stranger experiments still lurk in the murky spaces between. For the most part, these bizarre concoctions deliver some of the album’s most memorable moments. “Acidic” showcases blues riffs that sound like they were written in an abandoned fairground at midnight and allows lead guitarist Jim Root ample space to flex his distinct soloing style, weaving abstract and geometric melodies together like a spider spins its web.
“The End, So Far” sounds like the most fun Slipknot has had in years, but that alone is not enough to conceal the album’s most glaring issue: identity. Gone are the self-contained horror stories of songs like “The Nameless” and “Eyeless,” replaced by anger directed at unspecific targets. What makes the band’s 2001 masterwork “Iowa” a timeless metal release is its all-encompassing outrage, fueled not only by one person or group but by a self-loathing born of the infinite depths of generational trauma, marginalization, and political abuse that twist people’s lives into hollow semblances of what could have been. “The End, So Far” might be a step into the future for Slipknot, but it struggles to reflect the emotions of its listeners, who continue to wade into a future that seems more volatile by the hour.
Thankfully, Slipknot does turn the lens outward and inward on the album’s electrifying closer, “Finale.” Lyrically straightforward but evocative, the track functions like a high-octane eulogy of the band’s time with Roadrunner Records and their classic era, remembering the past for what it was while looking toward a future that will inevitably bring more life, but also more loss.
No band has ever been, or will ever be, quite like Slipknot, and “The End, So Far” is yet another testament to the group’s penchant for defying the odds and offers something for fans of each era to appreciate. This effort also moves Slipknot’s sound in directions that stray even from the band’s own conventions, making peace with the past to move into a promising future full of more musical debauchery. Maybe now that Slipknot is far removed from the horrific circumstances that made them such compelling avatars of discontent, their music will assume more of a paint-by-numbers formula of melody and aggression. However, if they can still write essential tracks like “The Chapeltown Rag,” Slipknot might have enough left in the tank to create an album as emotionally impactful as “Iowa” and as thrillingly diverse as “The End, So Far.” Both death and the music industry have failed to stop Slipknot before, and now that the band is free from outside control, who knows what odd experiments they’ll concoct next?
