SlipKnoT.
The one-year delayed concert of the American band SlipKnoT was, unlike their previous performance from 2016, played in Ostrava, placed in Prague's O2 arena. The programme of the whole Thursday evening was clearly dedicated to metal, in its thrash, nu, progressive or groove modifications. The opening support set was provided by the band Vended, which after Tainted Love (Depeche Mode) played from the speakers, played a short but interesting program. Two of the band members (Crahan and Taylor) are descendants of Slipknot musicians and it shows in their style. As part of the current tour, Venden will also play their own show at KNOTFEST in Oberhausen (July 30, 2022). The five musicians, two of whom hide their faces under a mask, probably following the example of their older idols, play fast, hard and with frequent rhythm changes. The half-empty arena appreciated the performance of the opening act and responded with appreciation with loud applause. The next support was the Ukrainian metal formation JINJER. The Prague audience heard five songs, including the most played ones - Judgment (& Punishment), Teacher, Teacher or Vortex. Tatiana Shmailuk's vocals were excellent, technically convincing and emphatic. The lighting of the stage was well done, as was the voicing of the individual instruments. The hall slowly began to fill up and the expected call for condemnation of the ongoing war in Ukraine was loudly accepted by the audience. But the main thing was yet to come. Thirty minutes to nine o'clock in the evening, and the stage on which the arrangements were being made was covered by a curtain with a large SLIPKNOT sign.
In 1981, the Australian band AC/DC released the album For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), the title and title track of which is a paraphrase of the Roman tribute to the emperor - "We who are about to die salute you." - used by gladiators before engaging in a life-or-death battle. This song, along with the darkness in the hall, opens the concert that a now almost full O2 arena is waiting for. Nine masked musicians take the two-storey stage on a monumental ride. Opener Disasterpiece (Iowa, 2001) followed by Wait and Bleed (Slipknot, 1999), crowned with Kerrang's best single of the year award, leave no one in any doubt that tonight is unique and special. An industrial set with fans and iron staircases, cross-shooting fire comets, steel barrels and two vast sets of timpani on the second floor complete the picture. Slipknot are an extraordinary band who think of all the details. Lead singer and frontman Corey Taylor interacts with the audience during breaks, repeatedly uttering thank yous and emotionally calling everyone in the audience a member of the Slipknot family. He promises that the band will be back for another show soon. His speeches are pithy and clear, but if he had left out the word fu*king, they would have been much shorter and there might not have been enough time to rest between songs. The band is flawless. The tempo is controlled by the excellent Jay Weinberg, who, together with bassist Alessandro Venturella, creates a dense underside that perfectly incorporates samples, synth sounds and keys. The bearded James Donald Root is the lead guitarist. His precise, fast, but fully functional riffs, stems and runs are the necessary superstructure of the typical nu metal sound. The audience will also get to see the live premiere of The Dying Song (Time to Sing). The two timpanists (Pfaff and Crahan) kneel on giant drums and beat the rhythm. The scene turns alternating colors of red, yellow, and blue. The fretboard of the bass guitar glows into the gloom with colored ice-iodes, and Corey Taylor spouts his own nihilistic and depressing lyrics. Pfaff smashes a steel barrel with baseball bats until he finally breaks one. The cauldron beneath the stage pogs in several places and there are hints of moshing. The atmosphere thickens, the hall boils and the satisfaction grows. As the last song of the show is announced for the third time, the really final song of the core set, Spit it Out from Slipknot (1999), comes on. It's one of the best known and most typical. Aggressive, psychotic lyrics, full of darkness and discontent are dumped on the listener without the slightest hesitation. Another typical representative of the work is the first of the two added songs,People = Shit (Iowa, 2001). The anger associated with frustration is evident in both the lyrics and the opening inarticulate roar. And then there's Surfacing and the reproduced Til We Die (All Hope is Gone, 2008), which symbolically closes out the energetic yet pleasantly depressing performance of America's SlipKnoT.