Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

“Prepare for Hell”, as the tour posters exclaimed, and whilst there was no sign of Dante anywhere in the vicinity, the heat, the taste of brimstone hanging in the air as if two Devils had had a 10 round fight over who would have the best seat in the house and the surely never imagined sight of one of the great Metal bands of their time, Slipknot, performing live on stage in the heart of Liverpool.

Hell may await, Hell may just be a place reserved for those that foster the endless television shows designed to frustrate and mock the afflicted, or Hell may be the place in which you pull up a stool, get served the drink of your choice and the only music playing on the juke box is anything delivered by media moguls who suggest that Metal in any form or from any culture is a dead-end.

Slipknot delivered a theatre of music, of finally honed musical insanity and the audience inside the Echo Arena lapped up every single second. At one point they were bouncing so hard on the concrete floor, anybody with idea to use this effect to level mountains would have had a case to try it out.

The small well of people taking full advantage of a mosh pit opening up throughout the evening seemed swirl, multiply and coalesce. Other pits opened up, sweat was raining down upon the floor like a hurricane depositing its load and unleashing panic on the inhabitants of a small island in the Atlantic Ocean. As the music pounded away, the drum kits having seemingly demons from Hell taking them down to the wood store and teaching them a lesson or two, the independent pockets of Mosh pits seemed to also merge in time to the increasing beat, to the expression filled vocals, and spin with accuracy like the raging eye of Jupiter. If the gig was a bountiful circus, if the music the attraction, then having your attention stolen as the eddy, the human hurricane, flesh exposed torso moshing was a sight to behold, it was the grand finale to the three ringed circus on show.

With an arsenal of songs at their disposal, and with five albums worth of tracks that could be primed like a missile aimed at a rogue asteroid threatening the Earth, Slipknot gave a towering performance. Tracks such as The Heretic Anthem, My Plague, The Devil In I, Disasterpiece, the much longed for Duality and Spit It Out were giving pride of place in a city that had cried out long and hard for the genre to have a colossus take the helm.

It might be the only time that Slipknot come to Liverpool, but judging by the animated heroics of the crowd, the shameless self-belief and true to form stage presence and ability of all the musicians on stage, not a single mask slipping all night, then it can only be hoped this is the start of something tangible and long lasting.

Ian D. Hall