Technically it was their third album (if you believe that Slipknot with the original lineup was the same Slipknot... Calling their 4th album "Vol. 3" makes one wonder that maybe Slipknot doesn't think Mate Feed Kill Repeat was the first album themselves).
Past metal elitist here, I got old and stopped caring. Slipknot is amazing, I’ll crank them and some Morbid Angel and Tomb Mold in the same day. Fuck elitists.
People only hate on slipknot from closed minded idiots. Its lile thecreason people hate the dallas cowboys. Its because theyre very popular and millions love them. Deep rooted metal heads will only listen to underground heavy no melody limited editing bands. Justvthecway it is
Iowa is their second album, considered by most as the darkest and heaviest of their career, “Diasasterpieces” and the title track “Iowa” are great listens. As far as the hate, metal heads have always sh*t on anything that gets too commercialized, it’s almost a right of passage in the m. community to use the trite “they were cool til they sold out” line. A perfect example is a band like Metallica that MHs have just wanted to rewrite Master of Puppets for the last 40 years, when in truth the great thing about this genre is the growth as musicians, as lyricists etc. and their reactions to a changing world IMO. then again I’m a little different, I grew up in this community, my friends and I at as early as 13 would get tickets every year to go to Ozzfest, I saw Metallica a half a dozen times before I was old enough to drink a beer and was even fortunate to attend New Years Evil in Phoenix with the reformation of Black Sabbath after 40 years, headlined by Pantera and Soulfly. bottom line, this community takes itself far too seriously with the gate keeping.
Hey, kids. Gen-X metalhead here. I've been feeling my way through some ideas lately. Something like this: I feel that the core philosophical idea at the heart of heavy metal is: we _should_ be better, yet we _are not._ The rage, aggression, and ugly aesthetic is the result of the metalhead's focus not on that we _should_ be better, but on the fact that we _are not._ We see the glass neither as half empty, nor half full, but that it's _surrounded_ by uncapped bottles, flowing faucets, open taps, deep pools, running fountains, raging rivers, thundering falls, and placid lakes with which it could _so easily_ be filled, yet it seems impossible by any human effort to access any source. At all. And ultimately, heavy metal is about power and all of its aspects. Needing power, seeking power, finding power, taking power, wielding power, fearing power, hording power, envying power, hating power, loving power, resisting power. Sharing power. Power to move the glass or divert the water. Power to fill the unfilled. People that love Slipknot enjoy their unique way of attempting to fill the glass. To my eyes, people that hate Slipknot seem to be pouting, cross-armed and whining, "You're not _doing it_ right!" Stuck in their ways. Stubborn. Calcified, if you like. They'll catch up or be left behind. And I feel there's only two real reasons a person dresses like a monster: Rarely, they _are_ a monster, and want to spice up the hunt by frightening the prey into a chase, but _vastly_ more likely, they dress like a monster to keep the _real_ monsters from discovering they are prey.
Iowa is the second able that followed the self titled album and Iowa is so far in my opinion the heaviest album they put out and one of my favorite albums by them
