Iowa

1	(515) 0:59
2	People = Shit 3:35
3	Disasterpiece 5:08
4	My Plague 3:40
5	Everything Ends 4:14
6	The Heretic Anthem 4:14
7	Gently 4:54
8	Left Behind 4:01
9	The Shape 3:37
10	I Am Hated 2:37
11	Skin Ticket 6:41
12	New Abortion 3:36
13	Metabolic 3:59
14	Iowa 15:05

Barnes & Noble

To paraphrase an adage from the last century, out of the mouths of rubber-masked, livestock-threatening chaos-mongers often come gems -- especially if you're among those who share Slipknot's overriding philosophy that "People = Shit." The thrashing, gurgling nine-piece doesn't have much use for subtlety (or, truth be told, for melody or songcraft), but as this album proves, there's more to Slipknot than meets the eye. Death rattles and gnashing wails are the order of the day on most of the tracks, notably "Disasterpiece" and "Left Behind," but once you get beyond the clichéd raving, there's some interesting stuff going on here. Torrents of percussion, which rage on the brief intro "515" and "Metabolic," border on the avant-garde, and subtle interludes like the Goth-tinged "My Plague" and the moody, epic title track seem to give a peek behind the mask. And while the over-the-top scatology and blind hatred that permeate the lyrics run the gamut from the ridiculous to the inane, it's virtually impossible to discern what exactly this band is about -- white-hot suburban rage, or high-concept artistic critique? You be the judge. Iowa's top-notch packaging may give the nod; the fold-out lyric sheet is printed on art-festooned parchment. But unlike their closest competitors, the special-effects shop-cum-rock band GWAR, Slipknot betray no discernable sense of humor to leaven this ear-shredding spectacle. David Sprague

All Music Guide

After a couple years of relentless touring in support of their self-titled breakthrough album, Slipknot regrouped to record Iowa, an ode to their home state that consolidates and punctuates everything that had garnered the band its cultish following. The monstrous guitar crunch, the concrete-dense rhythmic foundation, the frenzied singing, and the overall madcap fashion of it all -- Slipknot's trademark sound is very much at the forefront of this dark, dark album and is presented in epic form on the extended, album-closing title track, which brings to mind Children of the Corn-type terrors. Though not quite as commercially viable as the more straightforward Slipknot album, Iowa is a more interesting listen, one that envelopes you in its American Gothic shadow and leaves you feeling unsettled afterward. It's really all you could ask for in a Slipknot album, and then some -- perhaps some more than you'd like, in fact, if you're not part of the cult. Jason Birchmeier

Rolling Stone

[four stars]... Iowa is not just the first great record of the nu-metal era -- it's better than that. In fact, Slipknot's second album may be the only platter of its day and subgenre that, in five or ten years, we call "classic," with the same awed breath we reserve for Black Sabbath's early monsters, Metallica's Master of Puppets and Rage Against the Machine. David Fricke