Slipknot – an eighteen-legged heavy metal juggernaut from Des Moines, Iowa, who have a penchant for wearing boiler suits and a wide array of masks that are most probably designed to scare small children. In most people’s minds at least one of these features of Slipknot could be considered a gimmick, whether it is the unnecessary amount of members, the boiler suits or the Halloween masks. Nevertheless, they are also known for the music. Their post-Korn nu-metal has earned them millions of fans, regardless of whether or not they first heard about them because of one of their ‘gimmicks’. Since blowing up after releasing their self-titled second album they have released a string of commercially successful albums and got thousands of kids across the world to “jump the *** up!” However, this was all after their debut album ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’ released back in 1997 - when a maggot was just a small insect used to catch fish. Back then they had only seven members and #8 Corey Taylor did not feature, they also did not wear the boiler suits or the masks and played a very different style of nu-metal.
Recorded with a much lower budget than subsequent releases, it goes without saying that the production isn’t top-notch, but it is still good enough. The album features two tracks that would later feature on their self-titled second album –
‘Slipknot’ (known to you and me as ‘(Sic)’) and
‘Tattered and Torn’. The latter heavily resembles its counterpart on the self-titled album, only it features duller, gruffer vocals from Anders Colsefni and lacks the disturbing nature of its successor. Nevertheless, it is one of the more interesting tracks on the album with its penetrating guitars and unusual composition. The album opener only vaguely sounds like ‘(Sic)’ – the resemblance is most noticeable in the closing chants of “you can’t see me, for I hide within the umbra,” which would later become “you can’t kill me, ‘cos I’m already inside you.” The song is unnecessarily long and at times, the guitar solo in particular, Slipknot find themselves drawn a little thin texturally. It’s a shame because that’s about as good as it gets on ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’
Apart from tracks such as the ten-minute-plus behemoth
‘Killers Are Quiet’ which builds from a gentle cyclic guitar pattern to a heavy drone, all the while retaining your attention as it pummels away. Elsewhere the tracklisting is heavily populated with embarrassing funk tracks such as
‘Do Nothing/Bitchslap’ which has parts that could soundtrack dodgy 70’s cop films. It fluctuates between heavy, guitar driven nu-metal and bright-sounding funk. While this clash of genres gives band members their chance to show off their talents in different styles it sounds too disjointed to be enjoyable. The majority of the songs here are too disorientated as Slipknot make the decision to avoid the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure and instead decide upon a more meandering approach. While there are enjoyable parts –the refrain of “only one of us walks away!” at the end of
‘Only One’ and the introspective rock intro to
‘Confessions’ (think Incubus)- the album is by and large quite a chore to get through. This is especially true when the aforementioned intro to ‘Confessions’ is followed by cringe-worthy rapping and more funk that nods to dodgy 70’s cop films.
There are moments where Slipknot hint at what was to come, such as the songs which were carried over on to the next album, but also on the drudging
‘Some Feel’. Maintaining a slow tempo throughout, save for the last 30 seconds, turns out to be a poor choice as the intensity of follow-up albums just isn’t there and there is very little to captivate the listener.
‘Gently’ could have been a good song (it is still one of the better songs on the album) but after a nearly three-minute long intro featuring solid, but uninteresting down-tuned riffs it loses your attention. It gets more interesting once Colsefni’s vocals enter the fray, but as with all the songs on the album it is noticeable that they are nowhere near as good as Corey’s. While at the time of the release this wouldn’t have been much of an issue, even in his own right he is still not a great vocalist by any means.
The Slipknot of 1997 is very different to the Slipknot of today. Hell, even when compared to the band they were two years later on their self-titled album they are completely different. It’s fairly safe to say that “maggots” wouldn’t have taken to that album had it featured some of the embarrassing funk parts found on ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’ and while bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan have proven that unexpected genres, in their case jazz, can be successfully mixed with metal, it simply doesn’t work for Slipknot here. At all. Also, even when they stay close to the blueprint of what was to come on future albums it simply isn’t as interesting and most noticeably and importantly, it isn’t as intense. Musically, vocally and lyrically ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’ is inferior to subsequent Slipknot releases.
