With all the press and emotion surrounding the death of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray it was hard to see how Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root would be able to put their game-face on and play with their ‘other’ band Stone Sour.
With all the press and emotion surrounding the death of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray it was hard to see how Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root would be able to put their game-face on and play with their ‘other’ band Stone Sour. But with a new studio album Audio Secrecy to promote, it apparently just had to be done.
HellYeah are a band who have also had to deal with death. Legendary Pantera and Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul lost his brother, Dimebag Darrell in 2004; part of his way of moving on was to join a Southern-fried supergroup with members of Mudvayne and Nothingface, turn up the volume and continue the raucous party mayhem Pantera were always known for. First song Hellyeah set the tone in the pit below – bodies flying over the top of the barrier and bruises mounting up immediately. Vinnie’s massive drum kit was positioned front and centre, making sure there was no doubt who the star of the show was. His double kick thunder and skin thumping brutality creates a freight train of heavy rhythm that drives you into the dirt over and over again.
The vocal mix was terrible though. Chad Gray’s voice was rough and lost most of the time. Only in quieter sections was he decently audible. At one point between songs he said he had accepted alcoholism as a life and didn’t care, because that’s The Cowboy Way – which they then played. The highlight though was closer and joke tune-come sing-a-long Alcohaulin Ass, a rollicking, ridiculously catchy number.
You’d think Stone Sour would be in a more serious mood considering recent events, but instead it was all smiles and energy. Corey was jovial and interacted with the crowd non-stop. "Repeat after me – Ooooohhh, Ahhhhhhh" he implored a few times and the crowd played along. He stuck his fingers out and drove them back and forward to the sound. "You guys are disgusting," he said, laughing with his bandmates. Jim Root is a huge man, his guitar looks tiny on his body and his face stays mostly inanimate. But, man, can he play. The sounds he gets and intricacies he pulls off seem totally effortless as he jigs and sways with the beat. Bald, goateed bassist Shawn Economaki had a number two circled in the trademark Slipknot style on the face of both the bass’ he used during the set. For a band who have steered clear of talking about Paul Gray’s death and tried so hard to focus attention on their new album rather than the future of Slipknot, it was a strange decision that distracted from what Stone Sour were trying to achieve.
Seeing Corey Taylor maskless also allows an insight into the pure force he puts into his vocals. His neck is huge from all that screaming and you can’t help noticing his veins, arteries and tendons pulsing to the point of exploding. He chatted a lot between songs – almost too much. One fan yelled out "you suck!" to which Taylor chuckled and said ‘thanks’. He seemed to like this banter much more than the constant cries of ”we love you Corey!" from both male and female crowd members.
Stone Sour will always live in Slipknot’s shadow, but the band’s ability to mix savage riffs with more melancholy moments allows for a broader scope of mood and flow. Some of the ballads like new single Say You’ll Haunt Me come across a bit lame and feel too calculated, but others like Through Glass and Bother – which Taylor played solo on acoustic guitar – were moving. They played six new songs, but it was the heavier hits from preceding album Come What(ever) May such as Your God, Reborn, Made Of Scars and Hell And Consequences that really rocked the Dutch crowd. After finishing their first set with cranking oldie Get Inside, Corey asked how many more the crowd wanted. Someone yelled out "ten". "How about we meet you in the middle and play three more," Taylor replied smiling. A balls to the wall version of 30/30-150 ended a feelgood Stone Sour encore and a feelgood night all round.
JAMES RIDLEY AND JIMMY RUSSELL
