Slipknot // Bleed From Within // Live @ O2 London // Sat 21st Dec 2024

2024 has been a big year for Slipknot. A reflective year, as they’ve celebrated the 25th anniversary of their seminal debut record. A record which changed the trajectory of the Nu-Metal movement, and a record that brought an extreme form of Heavy Metal into the mainstream. 2024 has been a year of touring and conducting interviews, looking back at the album that unquestionably changed the lives of the masked musicians – as well as many of their devoted fan-base. And a year which has culminated in a UK tour and two final sold-out shows at London’s O2 arena.

Joining them on this particular journey were Scottish band Bleed From Within, themselves some twenty years into a career that may not have hit the heights of their American counterparts – although let’s be honest, few Metal bands can match the Iowa-natives in terms of success in the 2000s – but one that has seen the Metalcore stalwarts carve out a decent reputation for themselves. More than earning their slot on one of the biggest UK Metal tours of the year. They’ve played some prestigious shows with a host of big bands before of course, including the likes of Sylosis, While She Sleeps, Testament and Megadeth …

However nothing they’ve experienced before will have quite matched the hysteria that comes with opening for Slipknot in arena’s the size of the O2. And they hit the stage to a rapturous crowd very much up for the occasion, and delivered a set that certainly got the O2 moving – and the crowd nicely warmed up for what was to come. For those unfamiliar with Bleed From Within, their sound very much draws comparison with Architects, Killswitch Engage when their choruses are soaring with clean-singing – and a little Lamb Of God in style when they’re pounding away at full throttle.

Bleed From Within were clearly very happy to have been invited on this particular tour, with vocalist Scott Kennedy citing the first Slipknot album as a pivotal influence in the creation of their band. While they also managed to quite rightly plug the release of their forthcoming 2025 album Zenith – dropping on Nuclear Blast Records – as well as their own upcoming headline tour. It was most certainly a case of a job well done when Bleed From Within left the stage, leaving the capacity crowd absolutely salivating at the prospect of what was coming next. And when the lights dropped and the eerie repetitive sample of “Come Play With Us” – taken from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – echoed around the arena … the swelling crowd were more than ready for the impending Slipknot chaos.

Soon the opening bars of ‘(Sic)’ clattered into life with a fury of distorted guitars and a typically frenetic rhythm section, and Slipknot were joined in a chaotic unison with their fans. The occasion tonight – as with the whole of this Here Comes The Pain tour – was of course about revisiting and paying tribute to that first now-classic record. While celebrating its impact on the career of the band, as well as the Heavy Metal scene itself, as it reached the end of the 90s and leapt into the new millennium. And in the words of Slipknot’s enigmatic front-man Corey Taylor – “For one more night only here in fucking London, you will not hear one fucking song written after 1999!”

Slipknot kept the crowd pulsating through ‘Eyeless’ and then into ‘Wait and Bleed’ – one of the big recognisable anthems from their debut album, and a song which certainly got one hell of a reaction from the near 20,000 fans in attendance. There was a great vibe throughout the concert hall, as there had been in and around the venue prior to the show. A multi-generational crowd with those who may have been teenagers themselves when the record first dropped 25 years ago – mixed with those who are teenagers now, still finding a resonance with the timeless music Slipknot created.

The band fired through the record, offering just a few moments of respite in between songs for the crowd to catch their breath. With Sid Wilson noodling on the record decks, or Jim Root experimenting with his guitar – both creating dark and eerie soundscapes while allowing the floor to regain some composure. And before we knew it, the bands encore came far too quickly, with ‘Spit It Out’ providing another highlight of the show – before the band finished with ‘Surfacing’ and an extended version of ‘Scissors.’

Corey Taylor promised the room that Slipknot will keep delivering the good-stuff for another 25 years. And this would be no mean feat for the band who have sadly lost two of their original lineup to the other-side during an already legendary career. But for now at least, there’s no doubting that this extraordinary group of musicians have absolutely still got it. And in the weekend sitting just prior to Christmas 2024 … London absolutely belonged to Slipknot. KZ

Words by Abstrakt_Soul

Kult-Zilla – Rock // Metal – Live Show Reports