Review
Review
Slipknot at The O2 Arena, 21/12/24
Slipknot bring the nightmare before Christmas with a throwback residency at London's biggest arena
Tonight, Slipknot are partying like it’s 1999. Just eight miles from where they laid waste to the now-defunct Astoria twenty-five years ago (to the month), The Nine have dragged their red jumpsuits and original masks out of the loft for a vicious celebration of their self-titled debut. And, to complete the time-machine moment, they’re not playing anything written after 1999 either.
Inevitably, this move got some fans angrily bashing their keyboards. Some felt short changed, particularly for the ticket price. Yes, hearing ‘Duality’ or ‘Psychosocial’ et cetera could have made for a great ending before the long, cold wait for the tube home, but there’s something about this show that’s so complete, and yet so satisfying, that means it doesn’t feel lacking of anything.
In an unsurprising turn of events, it’s feral from the first riff. When the Iowans launch into opener ‘(sic)’ in a show of swampy lighting and synchronized headbanging, it’s like something has detonated – beers are thrown, the energy soars, the moshing begins.
Naturally, ‘Eyeless’ and ‘Wait And Bleed’ are masterclasses of their own, but the power of the deep cuts is not to be underestimated either. ‘Get This’ and ‘Eeyore’ make a monstrous pair, ‘Me Inside’ screeches and thumps and ‘Scissors’ is a wrenching, scraping conclusion – “Would you like to go someplace very dark with us?” offers frontman Corey Taylor.
In this twisted circus, the pauses matter as much as the noise. The person making those matter is Sid Wilson, who might be the MVP of the entire night. Never for a second do his moments in the spotlight feel like mere excuses for a toilet break – ‘Frail Limb Nursery’ rumbles and seethes, while a remix of ‘Tattered & Torn’ feels like ambulance noises wickedly twisted into something resembling music’s reanimated corpse. It makes this whole show into the nastiest kind of theatre, and sometimes it’s even a thing of awe.
How an hour and 20 minutes can pass so quickly when in Slipknot’s company is anyone’s guess, but maybe it says something that they don’t even need a full hour and a half to hammer home how important their debut is – for them, and their genre.
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Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage
