Iowa

Call me a fickle old Clarkie if you like, but the problem with modern day rock 'n' roll is that there's not enough dressing up.

Whether it's Little Richard, Arthur Brown, David Bowie, Adam & The Ants or Marilyn Manson, every decade has benefited from having grown men who are willing to flounce around in daft costumes.

While they'll doubtless balk at the comparison, the fact of the matter is that Slipknot wouldn't be nearly as ginormous as they are now if they didn't come on like Freddie Kruger's redneck cousins.

Looking shit cool in a Wes Craven sort of a way is one thing, but is the music any good? After a week of wrestling with their second long-player, I'm still not entirely sure.

The masked metal marauders set their stall out early doors with 'People = Shit', a huge wall of noise which, if you strip away the vomiting pig vocals, sounds like a psychotic Chili Peppers. Yup, along with the regulation Black Sabbath, Metallica and Venom, there are couple of Sly & The Family Stone albums residing in the Slipknot record collection. Not that there's anything ghetto fabulous about such lyrical thuggery as: "Here we go again motherfucker/Come on down and see the idiot right here/Too fucked up to beg and not afraid to care/What’s the matter with calamity anyway?/Right? Get the fuck out of my face?"

No wonder they're top of the CD burning charts south of the Mason-Dixon line.

It's all a bit wooooooarrrrrrrgh! by numbers until 'My Plague', a frisky little fellow which reveals a hitherto unknown penchant for Wilson-esque close harmonies. Further forensic examination reveals traces of 'Don't Fear The Reaper'-era Blue Oyster Cult ('Everything Ends'), Sisters Of Mercy ('Gently') and Joy Division ('Iowa').

Before you go binning your copies of Cultosaurus/Floodland/ Closer, it ought to be pointed out that these influences are given such a severe kicking that they're almost unrecognisable.

It's this devotion to serrated edges, which is both the octet's greatest strength and weakness.

While refusing to come up with anything even vaguely radio-friendly is fine, there's only so much blood 'n' bluster that the non-adolescent listener can take. Which, when you come down to it, is the whole point of groups like Slipknot. Every generation needs its anti-heroes and these guys have come up with a way of making rebellion seem all shiny and new. Love it or loathe it – I have to say I'm half way inbetween –Iowa is going to make them the biggest underground band on the planet since Nirvana.