Iowa

Iowa, the follow-up to the groundbreaking self-titled debut album, turned hard rock and metal on its head with its aggression and brutal sounds. It remains a classic 10 years later and this release celebrates this one of a kind album cycle.

Iowa is certified Platinum and Rolling Stone said: "Iowa is not just the first great record of the nu-metal era - it's better than that."

The album spawned the singles "Left Behind" and "My Plague" plus Slipknot classics "People=Shit," "The Heretic Anthem" and "Disasterpiece."

The 10th Anniversary Special Edition features 2 CDs and 1 DVD. It includes the original Iowa album plus a bonus remix, the audio from the legendary "Disasterpieces" concert filmed in London in 2002. The DVD includes a brand new hour long film by the M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan that documents the chaotic Iowa cycle.

Right from the introductory shriek and grind of "(515)," you know Slipknot are deadly serious about making a real heavy metal album. Iowa is intimidating in its unforgiving heaviness. Produced to perfection by wunderkind Ross Robinson, it takes the best of Slayer as a starting point. "People = Shit," "The Heretic Anthem," and "New Abortion" are relentless and wholly brutal, but this is no mere thrash. "Disasterpiece" features a weird, hypnotic riff, while "Left Behind" comes across like a duet between Alice in Chains' Layne Staley and Slayer's Tom Araya. The rerecorded "Gently" builds slowly from industrial atmospherics to a punishing explosion of noise. The title track (also old and formerly known as "Killers Are Quiet") is a deeply unsettling heavy-metal "Midnight Rambler." Frontman Corey Taylor claims to have performed it naked and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds, which isn't hard to believe. This masterfully constructed collection is painfully raw and utterly compelling. --Dominic Wills