Live Review - Slipknot at Sheffield Arena - 12/12/08

Children of Bodom:

With an unfortunately limited 35-minute set tonight, we’re only treated to small fraction of the Children of Bodom live experience which is a shame because their mix of thrash, power and extreme metal is pretty unparalleled in the music world at the moment. Alexi Laiho and co. are particularly unique and songs like ‘Angel’s Don’t Kill’ and ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’ are certified head-bangers and although they have their work cut out getting a crowd moving at 7pm, for the most part, they manage just fine. The only minor gripe however is Alexi’s frontman skills. Hopefully, he will eventually drop the excessive use of the f-word as it begins to lose its intended effect when used 10 times in one sentence.

Setlist:

Hellhounds On My Trail

In Your Face

Blooddrunk

Angels Don’t Kill

Hate Me

Hate Crew Deathroll

Downfall

Machine Head:

Once the houselights descend for the second time tonight, a deafening chant of ‘Machine F-In Head’ roars through the arena and the band open with ‘Clenching The Fist Of Dissent’ from last year’s much hailed ‘The Blackening’. While the album was no doubt Machine Head’s finest hour to date musically, live the songs tend to drag on a little too long for those of us who became used to Machine Head rocking us with anthems like ‘Take My Scars’, ‘Ten Ton Hammer’, ‘From This Day’ and ‘Blood, Sweat, Tears’. Sadly, songs such as these are dropped tonight in favour of the newer material that allow Rob Flynn and co. to show off their instrumental wizadry, despite the fact that since the album came out, the set has been pretty much the same. With fifteen minutes more allotted to Machine Head than Children Of Bodom, they still only manage to fit in the same amount of songs which gives you an idea of how long some of these behemoths drag on for. And in much the same vein as Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho, Robb Flynn really is too old to be using the f-word quite so excessively as, just like with Alexi, it becomes devoid of any intended effect (oh and Robb, you like circle pits, we get it). With only around 50 minutes allotted to them at last year’s Download Festival, the Black Crusade tour, this tour and no doubt the same amount of time in February when they return to support Metallica, there’s something unappealing about having to sit through the same setlist, again, for the fourth time in two years. Don’t get me wrong, Machine Head never put on a bad show and they certainly have more about them than 99% of what passes for metal these days, and I can imagine that those seeing Machine Head for the first time tonight would not have left disappointed but I hope they soon take their own advice and “bite the bullet” by playing full shows in smaller venues. Unfortunately, Machine Head’s set had to be cut short by one song tonight as guitarist Phil Demmel collapsed during ‘Halo’ and had to be carried off stage by his bandmates – thankfully, the crowd was later informed by Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor that Demmel was ok and would be fine.
Setlist:

Clenching The Fist Of Dissent

Imperium

Beautiful Morning

Aesthetics Of Hate

Old

Halo

Slipknot:

Unlike Machine Head, the headliners tonight never had to worry about treating us to a familiar setlist, or about an over-saturated presence in the UK in the last few years as the anticipation of the crowd tonight is at fever pitch. Slipknot have not played on these shores since the 2005 Download Festival and their cancelled appearances at Reading and Leeds this year only served to heighten the anticipation of tonight’s crowd. The band start as they mean to go on, opening with ‘Surfacing’ which tonight comes across a statement of intent – that Slipknot are back to claim their throne and lay all the young pretenders to waste. Frontman Corey Taylor confesses that the band are tired after such a long tour which can only mean that tonight’s furious performance is the result of a band running on adrenaline because you seriously can’t tell, with everyone in the band giving their all to a crowd that have been waiting far too long for their heroes to return.

Despite sporting a new mask that makes him look slightly like the Hitcher from the Mighty Boosh, Taylor is attired not in a boiler suit but in a Slipknot jacket, jeans and converse trainers – this is not the Slipknot of old and the band know that re-invention is the key to a successful career and the contrast in their musical extremes is evident in what can only be described as a surprising setlist. Instead of ‘Wait and Bleed’ and ‘Left Behind’, we are treated to oldies that some (the band including) may have thought were buried forever such as ‘Prosthetics’ and a ferocious run-through of ‘Get This’. But there are still plenty of anthems to get the crowd jumping and tracks like ‘Before I Forget’, ‘Duality’ and ‘The Heretic Anthem’ nearly take the roof off the place, not to mention the ever popular JTFU moment in ‘Spit It Out’ and dance-floor friendly number ‘Psychosocial’ both of which make the crowd go truly mental. And if anyone ever doubted Slipknot’s heaviness, they encore not with the songs most people expect, but with the brutal ‘People = Shit’ and ‘(sic)’, the latter complete with a revolving, almost upside-down drum solo from Joey Jordison that would make Tommy Lee wet his pants.

Slipknot will always have their naysayers that dismiss them for the masks, or their popularity, or for the fact that Corey occasionally likes to broaden the band’s musical horizons by actually singing, but tonight, naysayers be damned. Just witness Mick Thompson’s piercing solos, Joey Jordison’s blistering drumbeats or Corey Taylor’s call-to-arms style of whipping up a crowd and tell me this isn’t metal. In fact, never mind that, there are times when Slipknot are more of an extreme metal band than any of the one-dimensional Terrorizor crowd you care to name. But they’re popular, loved by kids and adults alike and are playing in an arena with pyrotechnics so of course that will never be metal to some. To the rest of us that don’t live by some self-imposed imaginary rulebook, Slipknot are one of the best live acts around and to miss them when they’re sure to come back next year would be to miss out.
Setlist:

Surfacing

The Blister Exists

Get This

Before I Forget

Liberate

Disasterpiece

Dead Memories

Psychosocial

The Heretic Anthem

Prosthetics

Spit It Out

Duality

Only One

Encore:

People=Shit

(Sic)