Slipknot – ‘Antennas To Hell’ 3 Disc Special Edition Review

As a single disc entity it is hard to fathom the exact purpose of ‘Antennas to hell’- certainly the band are keen to avoid having it labelled a ‘greatest hits’ collection given the somewhat final connotations such a term denotes, but then, as it contains all the singles, it’s kind of hard to think of it as anything else. The expanded editions (and pretty much the only editions worth any maggot’s time) flesh out the package and provide a more obvious answer: A two disc edition adds the band’s live set at Download, recorded in 2009; whilst a three disc set also includes a DVD featuring all of the band’s promo videos to date. Viewed in this super-package format it becomes clear that this is the band reaching the end of their first cycle of existence, burnt out as a unit, torn by the loss of Paul Gray and shredded by the pressures placed upon an arena-filling heavy rock band; ‘Antennas to hell’ is all about closing the first part of this story.

Taking disc one as a starting point, what is most clearly demonstrated is that, stripped of all the hyperbole, Slipknot have remained remarkably consistent. From the opening strains of ‘(sic)’ through the career defining ‘people = shit’ and on to ‘pyschosocial’ the band have given little ground to critics or thoughts of airplay, their sonic template remaining remarkably visceral throughout. Only two exceptions rear their heads – ‘Vermillion’ from the ground-breaking ‘Vol. 3’ and ‘snuff’ from ‘all hope is gone’; the former being an artistic departure largely embraced by the fans and the latter a more questionable excursion into Stone Sour territory that embraces the mainstream a little too closely. However, that one blip aside, over the course of nineteen tracks it is easy to chart the course of Slipknot’s meteoric rise and it is equally easy to understand why the band’s rise was so rapid – Slipknot have an inherent grasp of both melody and metal and these choice cuts, for the most part, demonstrate both of these qualities.

Of course, Slipknot fans will already have all these tracks (and Slipknot virgins would be far better advised to start with the band’s debut assault and work forwards) and so it is the other discs that will raise the most interest. Disc two sees the band in full flight at Download festival in 2009, Paul Gray still firmly within the band’s ranks and no hint of tragedy looming over the horizon. I have had many occasions to witness Slipknot at festivals and it has to be said that the band, with their chaotic set up, were always at the mercy of the sound engineer of the day. If the sound man did a good job, Slipknot with their powerful, vibrant performances would almost always carry the day, if the sound man was unfamiliar with handling a band of such size and volume then the band’s force would be painfully cacophonous with the instruments lacking any form of detail or clarity. Happily Slipknot and Download have a long, happy history together and in 2009 the festival and its organisers were ready to aid Slipknot in delivering a performance that sits comfortably in metal’s history books. From the opening blast of ‘(sic)’ the band have complete and utter control of the crowd and the mass sing-a-long engendered by ‘duality’ has to be heard to be believed. The quality throughout is excellent, the band just raw enough to sound convincingly live, but with enough production sheen to give the disc a real sonic weight. With seventeen tracks (listing below) ranging across all four albums, little is missed out and from Corey’s onstage proclamations you can tell the band are having a riot delivering their brutal message to such a monstrous crowd.

Disc three handily collates all of the band’s amazing video pieces. From the lo-fi, rough and ready videos such as ‘surfacing’ to the high-budget, dark fantasies of ‘left behind’ and ‘Vermillion’, Slipknot always developed their visual identity carefully, allowing glimpses into their damaged world-view via Tool-esque animation, full-throttle performance pieces and stunningly filmed vignettes of youth and lost innocence. Most fans will have got hold of these videos by hook or by crook (and many of the earlier ones have already appeared on recent special editions of the first pair of albums) but to have them all together along with a selection of bespoke ‘broadcasts from hell’ will certainly be a draw, particularly for those who want to see a snapshot of how the Clown sees each band member and it’s clear, once again, that the level of involvement of the band has elevated this package above and beyond the realms of the mere ordinary.

Overall fans of the band couldn’t really wish for a better overall experience than ‘Antennas to hell’. As an audio-visual barrage it easily matches the intensity of the band and between the live audio and the complete gamut of the band’s visual assault little is left to the imagination. The artwork too is suitably dark, but if there is a gripe it is the lack of liner notes, the addition of which would have been most welcome as a guide to some of the darker paths the band have trodden. However, one could argue that with the wealth of documentary material available across the band’s many DVD’s and special editions, there is little more to be said. As a standalone CD ‘Antennas to hell’ is enjoyable but probably redundant for the majority of those who would be interested, but as a special edition it proves to be an exhilarating trip through the band’s illustrious past. What remains to be seen now is if the band can regroup in the face of tragedy and move forward in a manner that keeps them close to a cutting edge that, as this compilation shows, they have never strayed too far from.