HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: All Hope Is Gone – Slipknot

The cover art to SLIPKNOT’s All Hope Is Gone has a different vibe nowadays. When it was first released, we didn’t know it was the last time the classic line-up would make an album together and the sight of the Iowans standing in a field beneath an overcast sky is tinged with sadness now. Of the nine guys on the cover, only five remain. Bassist Paul Gray died in 2010, while drummer Joey Jordison, percussionist Chris Fehn and keyboardist/sampler Craig Jones would all leave in the coming years.  Jordison would also pass away in 2021 and there’s no sign of Fehn or Jones returning in the near future. For each of those losses, fans would digitally manipulate the cover and remove the latest departee. The cover to All Hope Is Gone was foreboding in 2008, but now it almost feels like it’s counting down to the end.

But there wasn’t even a hint of this in 2008. Quite the opposite; All Hope Is Gone was an enormous success that propelled SLIPKNOT to the top of the metal world. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 100, contemporary reviews were almost universally positive and it sold over a million copies in America alone. They’d been playing arenas for years, but the world tour to promote this record elevated them to previously unheard-of levels. This was when SLIPKNOT graduated to festival headlining status and took their place alongside icons like IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA. For UK fans especially, the memory of them conquering the top spot at Download was era-defining.

Curiously though, it’s also one of the weaker moments in the SLIPKNOT discography. It’s not their worst, but it’s a long way from their best. Of the four albums recorded during SLIPKNOT’s ‘classic’ era, All Hope Is Gone is easily the worst. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, far from it, but this is a solid seven out of ten whereas the debut (1999), Iowa (2001) and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004) were instantly iconic.

In fact, the success of Vol. 3 might be why All Hope Is Gone is as disjointed as it is. Their third record saw SLIPKNOT spreading their wings into more experimental territory and it was a triumph. All Hope Is Gone sees them testing the waters again but with mixed results. There is still plenty of pounding, mosh-triggering anthems, but the deranged ferocity of their earliest work has been tempered and some of the more avantgarde moments fall flat. Songs like Butcher’s Hook and Gehenna were dark, atmospheric and certainly raised a few eyebrows, but they’re also a bit, well, dull. Even the most ardent critic of SLIPKNOT would never have accused them of being boring before, but on All Hope Is Gone’s lesser moments, it was justified.

Rest assured though, even when they’re not firing on all cylinders, SLIPKNOT are still SLIPKNOT and there’s some great music in here. Gematria (The Killing Name) is a blood-spitting, wild-eyed monster that could go toe-to-toe with anything from Iowa, while This Cold Black is a strong contender for the most underrated track in their back catalogue. It’s a raging, neck-wrecking deep cut, and assuming the statistics on Setlist.fm are accurate, it’s a crime it’s never been played live.

That isn’t to say that SLIPKNOT are only good when they play it straight, as some of the more boundary-pushing tracks have become favourites.  First single Psychosocial sounds like an early attempt at using AI to mash together SLIPKNOT, GOJIRA and PINK FLOYD and it really shouldn’t work, but it does so beautifully. It has a jarring rhythm and a chorus straight out of the prog-rock playbook and it’s one of those songs that just gets better every time you play it. It’s become one of their most recognisable anthems and a mainstay of their live shows for over a decade.

Elsewhere, Dead Memories and Sulfur are SLIPKNOT at their most arena-rock. They’re big, booming songs with choruses powerful enough to burn themselves permanently into your cerebral cortex and they’re great. Arguably the most divisive moment though is Snuff, which remains controversial to this day. It’s a tragic, anguished ballad that contains one of the most heart-breaking lyrics they’ve ever written, but to the more cynical-minded, it’s not a “true” SLIPKNOT song. Instead, it’s a leftover from singer Corey Taylor’s more radio-friendly STONE SOUR, full of overwrought sentimentality and massively out of place next to the brutal title track that follows. Here at Distorted Sound, we tend to lean toward the former, but we fully appreciate where the naysayers are coming from.

While All Hope Is Gone might not satisfy as much as its predecessors did, there’s no denying its long-term impact. SLIPKNOT were already an established act and their legacy was secured, but their fourth major-label album propelled them to stratospheric levels of success. When the promotional tour ended and the fuss died down, SLIPKNOT were no longer a band, they were a cultural event.

For many fans though, it’s also the end of the golden age. This was the last time that nine friends from Des Moines would record music together and for all the financial rewards and critical success, there’s an undeniable sadness about All Hope Is Gone. It took them to incredible new highs, but in 2023, it leaves a complicated legacy. All Hope Is Gone is a pretty good album, but it’s not mind-blowing. Given that it’s now seen as the sunset on their creative peak, it would be nicer to say it’s terrific but of their first four records, this has the most visible cracks in its armour.

All Hope Is Gone was originally released on August 26th 2008 via Roadrummer Records.

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