Much like they had Jonathan Davis rank Korn's albums a few weeks ago, Noisey has a new post up today where they got another nu-metal luminary, Corey Taylor, to rank Slipknot's discography from his least to most favorite.
His rankings were as follows:
5. All Hope Is Gone (2008)
4. Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses (2004)
3. Iowa (2001)
2. .5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
1. Slipknot (1999)
The ranking makes sense to me. Taylor also included a few thoughts with each album ranking. For example, it's no secret that Taylor is not a fan of Rick Rubin after the All Hope is Gone sessions, which is why that ranks so low. He basically said as much:
Just because of the experience around it—it has nothing to do with a lot of the music—but I have to say my least favorite is All Hope is Gone. [..] So it was really difficult to get that album made in the first place, and it was difficult to get everyone on the same page going out on the road. It was a miserable two years. One of the only reasons I can look back fondly on it is I got to spend a lot of time with Paulie. So other than that, the rest of it was so much hard work and pulling teeth, I have a hard time listening to that album without conjuring up terrible memories of what happened.
Corey does not like his vocal performance on Vol. 3:
My problems with that album are my vocal performance, a lot of it. Because I was trying something different with my voice, and later I came to my senses and I was like, “Man I really don’t like what I’m doing with that,” as far as the heavy side goes. I was trying a different scream and it just didn’t work.
He also clashed with Rubin on the chorus of "Before I Forget"
Rick Rubin famously told me I needed to change the chorus to “Before I Forget,” because he said it wasn’t a strong chorus, and I told him that’s just not going to happen. I agreed with him on a couple of occasions, but when it came to that song, I knew it was powerful enough that the chorus would carry it. And then we won a Grammy for it, so y’know.
After their first album came out, they had to headline out of necessity because no other band wanted to take them out:
It’s so crazy! And we did Ozzfest ’99, and you could tell something was happening. Something was becoming fucking crazy. The album hadn’t even come out yet. It came out halfway through that tour. So really there was nothing to prepare anybody for anything. And then after Ozzfest ’99 ended, we had three days off and we went right into the Coal Chamber tour where we were third on the bill, right below Machine Head. Halfway through that tour, we ended up switching places with Machine Head and becoming direct support. Because we would play, and this is nothing against any of these bands, nothing at all, we’d play and half the audience would leave after. It was no shit. We didn’t have anywhere to go after we played so we’d go out to the audience and hang out, watch the other bands, and we’d watch people streaming out—buying our merch and heading out. So it became a point where nobody wanted to take us out on the road with them. So we had to headline out of necessity.
These are just some of the cool stories in the Noisey piece. Check it out here.
