Issue 451

Slipknot

It may help in attracting legions of devoted fans and provide welcome anonymity in a celebrity-obsessed world, but wearing a horror mask for a living isn't all gravy. Just ask Corey Taylor, vocalist with American metal creeps Slipknot.

"They're very, very uncomfortable," says 34-year-old Taylor of his own Vincent Price-esque stage mask. "They tend to chafe and cut into your face." Moulded by a professional prosthetics designer and attached with a series of tight buckles "so they don't fly off," Slipknot's evolving series of death masks have been the Iowan nonet's signature schtick since their inception in the mid-Nineties. However, for Taylor there's a theatrical dialogue that runs parallel to them as eerie marketing gimmicks.

TV On The Radio
Dear Science
Touch & Go/ 4AD/ Remote Control

There's something about this album that sets it apart - not just from TV On The Radio's own previous releases, but also from the current malaise of sounds emerging from the creative hub of Brooklyn, New York City. There's space in the sound of this third album. Where previously sounds piled up to create a melange of noise and extreme cacophony, the key to 'Dear Science' is the breathability of it all.

It allows the songs to shine - opener Halfway Home is all over-driven rock fury, blasting out with Ramones-like 'ba ba baa' vocal hooks and an urgent delivery from Kyp Malone's co-frontman Tunde Adebimpe but, along with second single Dancing Choose, it's really the exception to the rule. Other numbers, such as Crying or Love Dog are rendered with a more funky touch than anything on the five-piece's all-powerful second album, 'Return To Cookie Mountain'.

Are you wanting to sell of some old musical equipment (or even buy some)?

Or are you looking for a band? Or people for your own band?

Check out dB's online classifieds! These classifieds make sense and they work because they're all about the music and the arts and all the wonderful things that pique the curiosity of our esteemed dB readership.

Really, they're your classifieds...

Over the years we've covered a lot of musical / artistic / cinematic ground as Adelaide's best-loved street publication.

Now thanks to the wonders of technology, every article since October 2002 is within your browser's grasp.

You can search dBmagazine.com.au via Google or just thumb through well-loved back issues...