Photography + Review: Slipknot, Cypress Hill, and Ho99o9
Posted: by The Editor
Slipknot is going on over two decades of being one of the most renowned acts in the metal genre and music overall. Between their acclaimed discography, notable costumes, and chaotic stage performances, just the mention of Slipknot immediately brings an image to mind. They’ve taken their notoriety to gradually built up their “Knotfest” entity to take Slipknot even further while uplifting other metal acts on the way.
Knotfest Roadshow has been the moniker for their last three tours and after hitting all the major metro areas last fall, we’re getting the bonus rounds now. Editor’s note here: the New Hampshire date was at the SNHU Arena — when my college announced that they bought this arena, I was upset that we couldn’t get the profit surplus refunded to us broke college kids, but if it meant we could get Slipknot to play there, I would retract my anger. With the tour stopping in the heartland of New Hampshire, fans lined up along the streets of Manchester hours before doors to get front row despite the 100 degree temperatures.
Kicking off the night was Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror) with their take on the Nu Metal genre for the current generation. With two vocalists, one acting as the DJ for the set, and a drummer fueling their horror show style metal set, they easily grabbed the audience’s attention. Before closing out their set, they told us how they sampled two Slipknot songs for their latest release and instead of being hit with a lawsuit, Corey Taylor took it upon himself to promote the single for them.
Up next was Cypress Hill. Despite the group being down a member, they still managed to stick to it and deliver hip hop set that got everyone grooving. Before their fourth song of the night, they asked if there was any law enforcement in the building because they wanted to dedicate the next song to them. After taking roll call of where the police were, they asked everyone to put their middle fingers up followed by a “f*ck the police” chant. The contrast between us joining them and our seat neighbors not being unamused was deeply felt. All was made okay as they closed out their set with the nostalgic 90’s hit “Insane in the Brain” followed by a cover of “Jump Around.”
With Slipknot up next, we were all eager as the banner displaying their logo covered the stand in preparation. Walking out with an extended intro to Disasterpiece, Slipknot hit the ground running with their set. Within seconds, crowdsurfers were pouring over the barricade. Immediately following was “Wait and Bleed,” “Sulfur,” and “Before I Forget” which kept the energy high with an abundance of crowd surfers and circle pitting. Before playing their newest song “The Chapeltown Rag”, Corey Taylor assured us that a new album was coming soon. The crowd kept giving it their all before Corey calmed things down with “Snuff” and asked the crowd to help sing it due to his throat being tattered. This did not stop them from coming back full force to close their set with “Duality” and “Spit It Out.” As the arena roared for one more song, Slipknot came back out and graciously gave us three more fan favorites.
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Kyle Musser//@godvfwine