The Guitarist Of The Year: 12. Mick Thomson/Jim Root
2014 saw Slipknot overcome adversity and reconnect with their youth while effortlessly retaining their status as the world’s most important metal band.
Slipknot were subjected to an ungodly weight of both internal pressure and external expectation in 2014. After the tear filled press conferences and traumatic headline sets that followed Paul Gray’s death, it was time to get back to business as usual and produce an album that could not be considered a hypocritical cash in. To make matters worse, the band lost another key member. Thankfully, there were no tragic circumstances this time around; only creative differences that saw Joey Jordison (one of the best drummers in the business) head off to pastures new.
Against this turbulent backdrop guitarists Mick Thomson and Jim Root came to the fore. With frontman Corey Taylor serving up more aggression and depression than melodic hooks, the brutality and gothic darkness of .5: The Gray Chapter’s guitar work was free to steal the show. There’s portentous pounding on “The Devil In I”, the brooding chuggery of “Killpop”, a whiplash riff on “Skeptic” and a track salvaging solo on “The One That Kills The Least” – whichever way you turn, Root and Thomson will be there, unleashing hell.
Far from an obtuse display of guilt or instinctive lunge towards the comfort blanket of nostalgia, .5: The Gray Chapter is a conflicted work that’s held together by two versatile guitarists content to roll with the punches: butchering flesh one moment and staring despondently into the void the next.
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