Slipknot - Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

chamber-pop arrangement complete with cello. Lyrically, the band retreats deeper into a paranoiac's fantasy world in which, as they say, "The test subjects run the experiment." Which might explain the album's occasional missteps. "The Virus of Life" sounds like an industri-metal production of Stomp, and "The Nameless" perversely splices a cooing boy-band chorus onto a g-g-gunking speed-metal verse; just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.

If you're gonna work the potentially cheesy genre of rapcore, the least you can do is play loud. At their best, Slipknot go way beyond that, tossing Slayer, hardcore punk, Public Enemy and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre into the mix, with a mania for volume. We're talking riffs on top of riffs. Just skip the slow ones.