Slipknot - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 4th March @ Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adel SA

Slipknot
Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide SA
‍March 4th, 2025
‍Support: Vended

‍“We all lose, we all hurt and we all try to maintain. All we can do is try to find ways to get through it. By making this music, it helps us move on. And hopefully by listening to this music it helps other people move on.” - Corey Taylor, Slipknot, BBC’s Slipknot Unmasked: All Out Life Documentary 2020.

Vocalist, song-writer, musician, author and actor Corey Taylor has endured an exorbitant amount of pain in his 51 years on planet Earth. In his youth, he suffered through homelessness, a fragmented family situation, drug addiction, criminal activity, sexual abuse and depression to the degree of multiple suicide attempts. As he told Metal Hammer in 2023: "It was the day of my last attempt at suicide. I had attempted it a couple of times before. This time, I’d just hit the bottom of the bottom. I’d taken a handful of pills from the bathroom – I didn’t know what they fuck they were. Luckily, my ex-girlfriend’s mom, who was an EMT, happened to stop by my house to check on me ’cos she knew what I was going through. She found me on the floor, called 911, and they rushed me to hospital and pumped my stomach, which I don’t recommend."

He continues: “My grandmother came and picked me up from the hospital. I was lying on the couch, thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I turn on the television and here comes Faith No More playing 'Epic'. They sounded amazing, Mike Patton was out of his gourd. The next day I started putting signs up in guitar places, looking for people to start bands with. And that’s where it all started.”

Shortly after these initial steps to form a band, Corey Taylor was singing for hard rock outfit Stone Sour; five years after its formation, Mr Taylor was invited to be the new vocalist for Alternative ExperiMetal nine-piece Slipknot. Around 28 years later, Corey once again stood onstage in Australia for the umpteenth time, with his seven brothers (usually eight), screaming, growling and melodically bellowing his poetry to thousands of devotees who use their art to help move on from their pain.

Collectively on this night at Adelaide Entertainment Centre, it is likely that every musician onstage and admirer before them underwent their own interpretations of musical therapy. Slipknot essentially created and possessed the book that would instruct and help advance our processes of getting through it. As per the quoted BBC documentary above, it helps the artists themselves immeasurably also.

“Adelaide! What the fuck is up?” Vocalist Griffin Taylor of Iowa’s Vended howls over a deafening capacity audience’s cheer; to clarify, in case the intrigue is too hard to ignore, the similar last name is of no coincidence - Griffin is Corey Taylor’s son. This biological connection may present itself as an advantage, but it can also be interpreted as a challenge. Either way Vended had to prove themselves, and they did so with veracity.

Nu-metallic hardcore driven outburst ‘Nihilism’ introduced the thousands to Vended who relished the three-minutes-and-15-seconds of metal mania enthusiastically. Crowdsurfers made their beloved escalations atop their fellow metalheads in adoring appreciation, while headbangers were eager to begin their neck dislocation processes. It is an inescapable aspect that a comparison between Griffin and Corey is inevitable; to be completely honest, for this scribe, there are notable similarities. The most incredibly impressive one being how much of HIMSELF Grif puts into his performance. He literally screams and sings himself to the point of collapse without wavering from his magnificent maliciousness, not until the showcase is delivered to his maximum and he nearly approaches the brink of blackout. Assuredly the vocal dynamics have resemblances, as does the lyrical themes and rather brashly: “I’m nothing but bullshit DNA. Fucked over with all the cliches. Too jaded to fucking explain it. I already know, so don’t even say it.”

The interpretations that can be administered here are rather fascinating. Nevertheless, the five-piece were proving themselves as an amazing authentic heavy metal ensemble. Undeniably, they had Adelaide’s undivided attention.

‍‘Ded To Me’ was an intense siren metal song of anguish with Taylor falling to his knees portraying his impassioned torment. ‘Am I The Only One’ was imposing with its malevolence and intertwined melody – the stage antics of guitarist Cole Espeland was especially riveting. And after the “Aussie Aussie Aussie” prompt, ‘Where The Honesty Lies’ had the quintet at full-flight, with big downshifted groove breakdowns amplifying the severity. The drum rim-taps of ‘Asylum’ recalled noisecore luminaries The Chariot’s ‘And They Faced Each Other’; however Vended undertook a driving thrash nu-metal path in delightful derangement. Credit must be awarded to drummer Melbourne drummer Josh Clinch (of The Gloom In The Corner) who filled in for Simon Crahan on very short notice and shined in the limelight of the role. The climax of the concluding nu-metalcore groove and choreographed head-and-body-bouncing by the band was certainly a spectacle to remember.

“In a world that isn’t perfect, we’re just trying to create an organism that feels right for us.” - Shawn “Clown” Crahan, Slipknot, BBC’s Slipknot Unmasked: All Out Life Documentary 2020.

The current state of the world is arguably moving further away from the simple representation of: “isn’t perfect” on a frightening trajectory. In reference to the above statement (from the same documentary), the creation of Slipknot and their cyber metal sound is one possibly not of this world, perhaps it is spawned from another universe? Although, not in an intergalactic sense. Perhaps in the sense of artistic creativity: the masks they wear and embrace in every exhibition, the kegs used as percussion instruments are just examples; the nine members who bond together to become Slipknot are wholeheartedly a growing organism that help their fanatics (or “Maggots”) escape this growingly imperfect existence..

At the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on this night, we were all part of this organism.

A combination of Gary Wright’s ‘Dream Weaver’, the nonet’s ‘742617000027’ and “Come And Play With Us” from The Shining creepily invites South Australia to a darker yet thrilling prospect of metallic insanity and the cheers indicate our ONLY response: ‘Welcome’.

Drummer Eloy Casagrande attempted a sneaky entrance onto the second platform of the stage, but was quickly identified. Seven more very familiar masked faces then marched into their positions (percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan and his son, Simon Crahan, the drummer for Vended, were both away from this tour due to a family emergency) – from this moment onwards, chaos reigned. ‘(sic)’, a detonation, dementedness and dominance – the imperfect opener. This octet’s intention was to eradicate and Adelaide was the ‘Pulse Of The Maggots’ after the devastation. ‘People = Shit’ enforced movement as if the building itself was struggling to breathe with reduced lung capacity, and percussionist Michael “Tortilla Man” Pfaff turned the multiple levelled stage into his playground with excellent eccentricities.

‍‘Gematria (The Killing Name)’ was a bit too eerily relevant to our state of existence, but the Corey shouted lyric “Burn Your Cities Down” incited an astounding elated psychosis from the manic moshers. The extreme outfit’s DJ Sid Wilson excellently exhibited numerous interludes of mash-ups to diversify the mayhem, and although this built-up tremendous tension, it added an electrifying theatrical element to the production. As if a chapter of the Slipknot legacy was about to be revisited. “Is that the sound of one of the craziest cities in Australia?” Corey Taylor roared at the thousands of people crammed into the Entertainment Centre that had virtually transformed into an overstuffed sardine can. ‘Wait & Bleed’ – flawlessly suiting.

Mr Taylor would go on to explain that the setlist was created specifically for this tour and considering the nine-piece’s extensive history with Down Under, this was executed mag(got)nificently. ‘No Life’ was nu-metallic hardcore wildness, ‘Yen’ was a modernised Shakespearean sonnet with an Evil Dead makeover and ‘The Devil In I’ remarkably fused the idea of a ballad with brutality. The loud/quiet erraticism had possibly never sounded so delectably disturbing until this moment in this venue. ‘The Heretic Anthem’, or let’s acknowledge the important message: “If you’re five five five, I’m six six six!” was marvellously monstrous – the “gang-vocal” response hit thunderous volumes. ‘Psychocial’ was an anthemic war march, ‘Unsainted’ acted as a call for the rebellion in both harmony and harshness and then to conclude, ‘Duality’.

Have you seen river rapids before? This single was the soundtrack to that natural wonder in effect, but torrential and unforgiving in the best way possible. There were eight different musicians moving at breakneck speed in different directions; matter-of-factly, where to look became the amazing issue that the spectators were hindered by. This extravaganza was unquestionably an awakening beyond a spiritual level.

Corey ensured to point out how grateful Slipknot was for their devotees who have supported the Hawkeyes for over 25 years in an emotional and thankful speech. He then encouraged South Australia to salute Clown in his absence; the addition of his percussion setup onstage was a very touching sentiment.

An encore was included (obviously), however the Iowans ensured they built the tension of the audience’s impatience to a breaking point before Mr Taylor strolled out and simply exclaimed: “You know we couldn’t leave without saying goodbye right?”

‍‘Spit It Out’ was a colossal seizure – an extreme embolism of metallic turmoil that in-all-likelihood provoked crowd members to convulse uncontrollably.
“This song is your new national anthem, it is called ‘Surfacing’!” – paramedics were on standby for this evil avalanche; fortunately, the middle fingers of the thousands within the venue assisted in their survival.

Closing with an eight-an-a-half-minute artistic-noise-metal venture is ambitious; however, try to find a moment where this long-serving royalty of innovational heavy music did not pulverise what is considered the “norm”, or what is expected? When has this nine-piece ever compromised their creative character to fit in? ‘Scissors’ was a theatrical grotesquery of greatness. Corey Taylor sat on the staircase to just rediscover where he was mentally, physically, emotionally – he had entered a “trance” like state. Michael “Tortilla Man” Pfaff actually fell off the elevation, unharmed. Guitarist Joe Root seemed to have relocated to a different dimension, his mental whereabouts, unknown…

Thump… Microphone dropped… Over – “All we can do is try to find ways to get through it. By making this music, it helps us move on. And hopefully by listening to this music it helps other people move on.”

We are MOVED.

Review by Will Oakeshott @TeenWolfWill

The Slipknot circus rolls into Sydney for Knotfest and then New Zealand later this week. Remaining tickets here

Photo Gallery by Daniel Hill @No.Quiet.Photography. Please credit Wall Of Sound and Daniel Hill if you repost photos.