All Out Life - Ignorable
Quick Thoughts: All Out Life (2018)
A look at Slipknot's new song and music video.
Slipknot is one of my favourite bands; their first album is undoubtedly my overall favourite of all time. I'm not too great at judging music. Songs tend to grow on me, sometimes gripping me for a few days and then being forgotten entirely, sometimes sticking with me endlessly. Slipknot's new song, All Out Life, which I have listened to more than five times now, has not yet grown on me. Such was pretty true with most of the songs on their last album. Only The Negative One has so far hooked me; The Devil in I would be second, but I can't say I care too much for the entire album. Such is somewhat true of about half of All Hope Is Gone. Of course, the element of Slipknot's music that has been most closely criticised since Joey Jordison left has been the drums. Almost for the drums alone, I think Eyeless, My Plague, The Heretic Anthem, Liberate, Surfacing and The Blister Exists are among the band's best songs. The drum work on Slipknot's last album did not strike me - nothing has changed with All Out Life. The lyrics are maybe the most off-putting element of this song; they don't lend themselves to the rhythm too well and they're a little too hard-rock or punk-esque for me. (In all honesty, I can't say I care too much for heavy metal lyrics in general). In total, however, this doesn't remind me of an older Slipknot as many people have suggested. The aggression is not as precise as it used to be and the melody is flat. Flat melody is not a problem in Slipknot songs such as Disasterpiece, but that's because the aggressive pace takes over. In All Out Life, there is no satisfying cacophony.
The worst thing about All Out Life, however, is the music video. It is, in fact, surprisingly bad. One sign of a great music video is that it seems to ring out music even if watched silently. The paradoxically poor nature of All Out Life's music video is that, even if played with sound, it looks and feels silent. This is simply because there is almost no sound-montage, no relation between the orchestration of music and image. The narrative of the music video is then distracting in all of its inanity and irrelevance, not at all surreal or attractive enough to be given any merit at all. All Out Life's music video is quite similar to Duality's in that it involves fans running around, but there is no passion and intensity in the crowd we see. The slow motion, the costumes, the lighting, the set, they all come together to create no mood and no atmosphere. And the editing--highly unimaginative.
All in all, All Out Life is too forgettable and ignorable for me. Maybe it will grow on me, but, one thing is for certain: the music video sucks. That said, are you a Slipknot fan? What do you think of their new song?
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A look at Slipknot's new song and music video.
The worst thing about All Out Life, however, is the music video. It is, in fact, surprisingly bad. One sign of a great music video is that it seems to ring out music even if watched silently. The paradoxically poor nature of All Out Life's music video is that, even if played with sound, it looks and feels silent. This is simply because there is almost no sound-montage, no relation between the orchestration of music and image. The narrative of the music video is then distracting in all of its inanity and irrelevance, not at all surreal or attractive enough to be given any merit at all. All Out Life's music video is quite similar to Duality's in that it involves fans running around, but there is no passion and intensity in the crowd we see. The slow motion, the costumes, the lighting, the set, they all come together to create no mood and no atmosphere. And the editing--highly unimaginative.
All in all, All Out Life is too forgettable and ignorable for me. Maybe it will grow on me, but, one thing is for certain: the music video sucks. That said, are you a Slipknot fan? What do you think of their new song?
Previous post:
Dreamgirls - Melos: Art As Embarrassment
Next post:
End Of The Week Shorts #82
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
