Saturday: Slipknot - AOV

     Were you, like me, pleasantly surprised with how good Slipknot's last record was? After the mixed bag that was All Hope is Gone, I didn't know what to expect from .5: The Gray Chapter. I certainly didn't expect the level of kick-ass that I got.

     Slipknot has always been a volatile set of relationships, something that only seems to have gotten more and more true as the years and albums have piled up. With a couple of the original nine now gone, perhaps the most important of which being bassist Paul Gray, it's hard to know how much gas Slipknot have left in their collective tank. Factor in the time Slipknot traditionally takes between albums, and it would seem that their alums may well be numbered.

     So let's celebrate the return to form the band accomplished with .5: The Gray Chapter by jamming heavy rager "AOV" at a decent volume, OK?

Sunday: Slipknot - Killpop

     I've been spending some quality time with the latest Slipknot album .5: The Gray Chapter lately, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a pretty damn good addition to the Knot catalogue, and my favourite offering from the band in years. With the recent release of a new video for one of the album's standout tracks, who am I to deny you a still-belated Slipknot Sunday?

     Now, unfortunately for me, my favourite cut from The Gray Chapter isn't the song to have gotten the video treatment in question. But since "Killpop" is a great song too, and now has a typically weird, typically Slipknot music video, it's the obvious choice for your Sunday song. Doom pop verses give way to groove metal choruses, but my favourite part is how far the song comes from its sparse opening to the chaotic onslaught of its dense ending. Quite a journey for just four minutes, don't you think?