The album that would become Slipknot’s third album, and the crucial masterpiece in their history, almost didn’t happen at all. Between the hard-fought success of Iowa (Roadrunner Records), the well-documented interpersonal relationship issues between the nine band members, rising fame and pressure, side bands like Stone Sour, To My Surprise, and Murderdolls, and “off the field issues,” you couldn’t blame this band if they imploded totally around this time. However, overcoming themselves and all of these obstacles; Slipknot’s Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Versus) (a great pun on Salman Rushdie’s controversial book, The Satanic Verses,  is one of their best albums, along with their debut might be their finest hour. It is certainly their biggest hit album on a lot of levels. It yielded six singles and as we like to say on the Glacially Musical podcast (where we reviewed this album), an album has a bunch of singles if it’s selling and the band is doing well on tour. Continue reading →