An interesting and illuminating biography of an album, albeit one that is also a little unfocused and disjointed…

Slipknot is one of metal’s most iconic and recognisable bands. In late August 2001, Slipknot released their extraordinarily brutal second album, Iowa. With it, nine masked maniacs from the American Midwest captured the zeitgeist and reimagined the genre. The album’s emotional intensity and aggression was matched only by its commercial success, as it topped album charts and defined the nu metal era.

Two weeks after its release, the world changed forever. After the attacks of 9/11, Slipknot collided with history and a generation in upheaval. As the band’s members struggled with their own demons, it wasn’t certain that Slipknot would survive. What followed is a story that’s as tumultuous, gripping, and as real as it gets.

Somewhere Between Screaming And Crying is the story of Iowa‘s difficult birth and its remarkable impact in a world seemingly coming apart at the seams. As nu metal is embraced by a new generation today, Dan Franklin unravels how and why this much-maligned subgenre still connects so strongly and explores the ongoing influence of Slipknot as one of the most recognisable and artistically vital bands in metal today.

Dan Franklin’s latest book examines a defining era of (nu-)metal and one of the bands that felt ubiquitous, divisive, and essential. It is an engaging, illuminating, and interesting read; but also one that has some flaws. Essential reading for fans of Slipknot, but also anyone who wants to take a walk down memory lane.

In 2020, I read Dan Franklin‘s excellent first book, Heavy: a history and examination of heavy metal and his relationship with the genre. It was well-written, and reminded me of a lot of metal history I knew as well as informing me about a fair bit I did not. I’m a couple of years younger than the author, and I grew up reading about much the same events, bands, albums, and so on; but it was refreshing to get a new, different perspective.

I was, therefore, very eager to read Franklin’s latest book, Somewhere Between Screaming and Crying, which is not so much an overall history of Slipknot the band, but rather a biography of Slipknot around a specific time; when they released their second barn-burner-of-an-album, Iowa. It came out shortly before the 9/11 attacks and the cultural swerve America experienced as a result. The book is Franklin’s attempt to locate the album and the band in that culture and context. He does this mostly successfully, and offers some interesting insight, history, and anecdotes that will please long-time fans (and maybe detractors) of the band and the nu-metal genre. Franklin also provides some personal reflections on what the album meant for him at what was a difficult and unsettled time in his own life.

However, the book did, at times, feel rather disjointed and/or unfocused. Franklin indulges in some detours along the way–more as we get deeper into the text–which do not always add to our understanding of the band, the album, or how the two were affected by the time. (Sometimes, it also seemed as if the author forgets that the album was written and released before the attacks, which can be a bit disorienting and leads to some strange conclusions.) These digressions are interesting, and well-written as I would expect, but I did sometimes find myself thinking, “Ok. And…?” Pieces of the band members’ backgrounds are sprinkled throughout the book, but some came far too late in the narrative; bringing them forward could have provided readers with the personal context that informed their approach to music, metal, performance, and so forth, sooner and maybe helped shape the story better. Some more attention could have been paid to more-effectively pulling these threads together into a cohesive narrative, with a clearer takeaway.

The album was released shortly before I started university, so there will always be a strong Proustian effect whenever I hear a song from it. It recalls those days of excitement and anxiety getting ready for college; but also being glued to the news after the attacks, waiting to see how the Western world had changed and would continue to do so. Franklin seems to have a similar reaction to the album and the times; but he seems to have attached greater significance to the album and its reception than I experienced.

As I was reading the book, I realized that, while I do consider myself a fan of the band, it has been a long time since I put on one of their albums and listened to it from start to finish. Indeed, I somehow even managed to miss the release of The End, So Far (2022) entirely, not to mention a whole host of personnel changes. Because it was recently the 25th anniversary of the album, and coverage on social media has been quite extensive, I was able to get up-to-speed on the latter without really any effort (near-daily posts about the band’s history have been popping up in my feed). Now, only four of the original eight members are still in the band. Before this month, I had only really been aware of the two members who have tragically passed away: Paul Gray and Joey Jordison. According to Franklin’s book, Gray and Jordison were the primary songwriters for the band’s first two albums. So, while cycling through the band’s discography as I read Somewhere Between Crying…, it has been interesting to note shifts in the band’s sound, and wondering if they are attributable to changes in Slipknot’s song-writing processes or the natural evolution of the remaining/new band members’ styles and approaches.

As I revisited Slipknot’s albums, I was surprised by how dated the songs on Slipknot and Iowa sounded to me (although, not as dated as Korn’s albums, who get a few mentions in Somewhere Between…). “Wait and Bleed”, the Slipknot song that hooked me into the band, is still great, but doesn’t feel as vital as later, similar tracks. “Left Behind” might be the only song from Iowa that can match up to what the band wrote and produced later. The songs on Vol.3: The Subliminal Verses (2004) and All Hope is Gone (2008), meanwhile, feel far more contemporary and perhaps timeless; in fact, “Duality”, “Before I Forget”, “Sulfur”, “Psychosocial”, and “Dead Memories” haven’t really aged at all. I’ve always thought these two albums did more to cement Slipknot’s place in the metal pantheon and, perhaps, helped define modern metal more so than Iowa. Maybe it is the band’s attitude during the Iowa-era that has become definitive; but for me their songwriting and musicianship really levelled-up after Iowa. (Corey Taylor’s voice, in particular, continued to improve in leaps and bounds across the band’s career.)

Bringing it back to Franklin’s book… Despite my quibbles about structure and cohesiveness, I would nevertheless say this is a must-read for any long-time fan of the band, regardless of your thoughts about their different albums and which are your favourites. I’d also recommend it to relative newcomers to the band: the author does a great job unearthing quotations and anecdotes from the turn of the millennium, and contrasting them with more-recent interviews and reflections from the band members (especially Shawn “clown” Crahan and Taylor, who seem to have been quite available).

*

Dan Franklin’s Somewhere Between Screaming and Crying is out now in the UK, published by Constable. (At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any information about a North American publisher.)

Also on CR: Review of Heavy

Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received from publisher