Vim Fuego Nu-metal played fast is not death metal.

Many people, including a lot of critics who should know better, have been saying this album shows Slipknot's death and black metal influences and contains elements of both styles. This has been sacrilegiously compared to Slayer's landmark album "Reign In Blood". This has been called the direction of metal for the future.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

It's just Korn on amphetamines. If this is death metal, then I'm Ronan Keating.

It's nu-metal played a bit faster than the average bunch of clown-trousered, dog-chained, whining, spike-haired wannabes. That means it has no substance, no feel, little musical skill, and is just downright dreadful. The "aggression" comes across as contrived and calculated.

The lyrics are inane, vapid, and braindead. "If you're 555/Then I'm 666". Truly insightful, I can, like, so relate to that, man, Slipknot feel my pain. And how clever is calling a song "People = Shit"! I'm gonna write it all over my school books, 'cos that's just what I feel! Enough sarcasm...

Musically, it's mush. The drumming is nothing spectacular, despite two extra percussionists. The riffs are recycled and bland, the bass is boring, and vocals are poorly executed. So the vocalist can scream and sing. Try it yourself- it's not difficult at all, and many do it much better. The addition of four extra musicians than the band needs adds nothing noticeable to the sound whatsoever.

This is nu-metal pabulum stuck in a blender. Sure, it's faster than normal nu-metal, but at the end of the day, it still tastes the same.

Mjöllnir Slipknot’s second Roadrunner (third actual) album is a bit of a nu metal classic, though that’s not much praise knowing my tastes. I’ve long since gotten off the “nu metal isn’t metal” bandwagon, but still I can’t recommend this much to fans of most every other sub genre.

But there is promise here nonetheless. Shunning the breakbeats and prominent bass guitar and incorporating a more death metal inspired approach worked in their favour to give them their own personality in the alt metal glut of the late 90s/early 00s. The first few songs are grinding, thrashing beasts with light turntabling and a huge sound (having 9 members helps, though Ross Robinson’s production must take a good chunk of that credit). People=Shit is in particular powerful and one of the more brutal songs to make it to the fringes of the mainstream.

I find fault mainly in the horrible lyrics, which put me off greatly. Now normally, lyrics are hardly a point of contention for me in enjoying the music behind them. But here the endless reams of swear words and angst are a bit too much to bear. A very personal gripe I’ll admit but a real bother this time around. I also find the middle pack of songs become an over familiar jumble. The nauseating 15-min drone of the title track is a little too much for me too. It was reworked from the track “Killers are Quiet” from “Mate Feed Kill Repeat” and while epic length, it seems to drag rather than captivate with repetitive form.

Maybe the preceding and following albums are stronger but this is what comes to mind when I think of Slipknot. Plus, the original booklet was an incredible sight to see!