Pix by Sarah Gilpin and Kaotic Images thanks to Sense Music Media
Words by Storm Leith, Jimmy Glinster & Kris Peters
With over a quarter of a century in the music industry to draw experience from, Slipknot have grown into more than just a metal band. They have become an institution.
Whereas most music festivals try to cram as much diversity and countless bands and stages onto the one bill, Slipknot know and understand the notion that often less is more, streamlining their travelling Knotfest Festival into a one day, two stage event that avoids clashes and over saturation of choices in favour of simplicity.
Metal fuelled, easily digestible simplicity.
Before Cyclone Alfred set his sights firmly on South East Queensland, a raging typhoon from Iowa swept through Brisbane, bringing with them an assortment of national and international friends to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of their self-titled debut album, albeit almost one year late.
Not only is Knotfest a live music event of the highest order, it is also a living, breathing reminder of the impact Slipknot have had on the world since late last century, offering fans and concert goers a glimpse into the past, future and present of the band via the Knotfest Museum which is curated by the lovely Caelin Meredith. Our day started with an early look inside the hallowed doors that housed an assortment of memorabilia, equipment, interactive instruments and more, with Caelin kindly allowing my daughters Scarlett and Katana to share in the wonders that lay within. But that review is for another day, with this one concentrating more on the music.
San Jose hardcore outfit Sunami had the honour of opening proceedings, offering up a fast paced and frenetic display of ferocity that quickly had the crowd casting off the midday blues and diving into midday madness as frontman Josef Alonso almost dared the early moshers to follow his lead with an intense and engaging performance that was as much scary as it was exciting.
Next up was the band ALOT of people were waiting to see for the first time. Be it out of curiosity or judgementally, VENDED were possibly one of the most anticipated acts to appear on any of the Knotfest Australia line-ups. Vended were making their Australian debut this year, a fact which some may find surprising given that two of their members (Griffin and Simon) are related by birth to two prominent members of Slipknot.
Doing my best to cast this fact aside in order to judge the young Iowa metal outfit on their own merits, I settled in to watch Vended and was immediately struck by how much like his old man Griffin was. And this is by no means casting aspersions on the vocalist because at the end of the day you can’t help who you look like or what you sound like – and I can think of plenty of far inferior role models an aspiring musician could have.
That aside, Vended produced an entertaining, tight and confronting debut set, the band at times looking a touch overwhelmed but I couldn’t tell whether that was from the heat or the crowd response. Either way they smashed their way through a set that included The Far Side, Am I The Only One and Where The Honesty Lies, closing out with a track called Asylum that saw Griffin succumb to the heat early on, casting forth watery projectiles in order to free his lungs.
Mention must also go to drummer Joshua Clinch who filled in for Simon Crahan with 24 hours notice and slotted in seamlessly as if he had been playing with the band his whole life!
Ohio metalcore legends Miss May I took up next, delivering a heavy as fuck set that far exceeded their status as a metalcore outfit. Dual harsh/clean vocals from Levi Benton (harsh) and Ryan Neff (clean) were one of the highlights of the set that included crowd favourites Shadows Inside plus Forgive And Forget.
This was my first time seeing Miss May I live, and highlights one of the best things about festivals such as Knotfest – discovering new bands. I don’t mind saying that I have only seen four of the bands on the line-up before (you figure out which ones) but I left with another five on a list of bands that I will definitely check out next time they tour.
Miss May I is one of them.
LA band Health are another I hadn’t seen before. In fact I hadn’t even heard of them previously, but they were another gem in the darkness, taking out the title of the day’s true surprise packet.
To classify their sound would be doing the band a disservice but it was essentially a rock-driven musical landscape with an industrial edge that was accentuated by an atmospheric and unique sonic palate driven by strong drums and eclectic textures. I’m still not sure where or how they fit into the whole Knotfest experience, but then I guess the answer lay right there.
The experience.
In Hearts Wake led the Australian contingent, with a typically powerful set of melodic hardcore given a pulsating edginess by their laid back and approachable Australian spirit. Vocalist Jake Taylor promised us a set full of highlights and surprises when we spoke to him earlier in the day, and he didn’t disappoint with live collaborations featuring Jamie Hails from Polaris on Hellbringer and Miss May I bass player and clean vocalist Ryan Neff for Earthwalker.
The Byron Bay locals placed a high emphasis on tracks from their latest album Incarnation, with Gen Doom seeing Taylor joined on stage by a string of dancers who remained there for the rest of the set which was closed out with the breakdown fuelled carnage of Orphan that left the crowd on the brink of destruction to see them through to Hatebreed.
One thing with Hatebreed is you can always be sure they will bring it live, and bring it they did with close to the best set of the day. Frontman Jamey Jasta epitomises what a singer should be out front of one of the best live bands in the world. hunger, energy to burn, intensity and sincerity.
His obvious and genuine gratitude of being not only a part of Knotfest, but also being back in this country, endeared him to the crowd, but it was his and the rest of the bands – brutal and uncompromising musical delivery that ensured no-one left Knotfest without a sense of love and respect for the Connecticut hardcore outfit.
The set started with the fiendish Proven Into Perserverance and offered up banger after banger including Destroy Everything, Smash Your Enemies, I Will Be Heard and Everyone Bleeds Now. But despite the quality of the entire performance, Hatebreed‘s 2025 Knotfest Australia set will go down in memory as the one where the band introduced the Hatebreed Ball Of Death. Essentially a black, massively oversized beach ball emblazoned with the Hatebreed logo, the Ball Of Death cut a swathe of destruction through the front section of the crowd, haphazardly flailing about in the breeze, punched from pillar to post by the grateful crowd who got to vent their growing music fuelled aggression by striking said object.
Enter Shikari were one of two polarising bands on the Knotfest line-up (the other I shall get to shortly). Something to do with having synthesisers in the sound complete with samples and drum and bass loops.
But if you can get past your metal snobbery, Enter Shikari are, and always have been, a highly engaging live band. Songs such as Sorry You’re Not A Winner are eclectic works of art, with enough by way of hardcore sensibilities spread intermittently through breakdowns and heaviness to turn even the more pure of heart.
Granted they are a more pop induced and electronic bastardised version of anything resembling heavy metal, but they are still a whole world of fun led by enigmatic frontman Rou Reynolds whose musical knowledge is quite impressive if you ever get the chance to speak with him. One of their first Australian experiences was on a small side stage at Big Day Out 2008 and the fact they have grown since then to a genuine headline act proves I can rest my case…
While not exactly in the polarising category, Dutch symphonic metal titans Within Temptation were definitely in the raised eyebrow section of bands for a lot of punters, especially sandwiched between Hatebreed and Slaughter To Prevail (with Enter Shikari in there as well).
But they proved that not only were they worthy of their higher billing, but were also the perfect folly for the testosterone laced mayhem that had begun to settle over the crowd. They dished up a noticeable shift in intensity, offering beauty and respite at a time where any more cold have proved almost unbearable to many who had stood in the heat of the Brisbane sun for hours already.
Vocalist Sharon den Adel provided a masterclass in vocal control, at times mesmerising sections of the crowd with her captivating and engaging performance that was bordering on epic. Starting with We Go To War before easing into Bleed Out and Paradise (What About Us?), Within Temptation didn’t try to be or sound like anything other than themselves and won a great deal of respect because of it.
Closing with Supernova and Mother Earth, Within Temptation provided the calm before the storm as Slaughter To Prevail who, after overcoming a couple of technical issues during the first song Bonebreaker, proceeded to decimate the hearts and eardrums of everyone in attendance.
These are another of the bands I had not seen before but I became an instant fan as they bludgeoned through Conflict and Koschei before pausing to invite a young fan called Oscar onto stage with them to play guitar on Viking. And fuck me, this kid could play! Plus what a moment for him. He will NEVER forget Knotfest 2025.
Straight after that the Russian deathcore outfit launched into possibly the most brutal song of the day in the form of Bratva, with vocalist Alex Terrible proclaiming “there is no paradise for you guys, only Valhalla.” And by the time Bratva was finished it felt like we had gone to battle against the Vikings, with the song generating a fierce wall of death that carried through in some form until Slaughter To Prevail left us battered and bruised with Kid Of Darkness. Absolute brutality at its finest.
Due to a return visit to the Knotfest Museum and an overwhelming need to eat, I missed Polaris‘ whole set so have nothing for you regarding that, but I made it back in time for Baby Metal.
Yay.
This was the other polarising outfit of the day, with myself being one of the people who wondered aloud why they were chosen to be a part of Knotfest. Not that I am a musical snob (actually, I kind of am), but I have never been a fan of Baby Metal from the first time I saw them in Japan almost ten years ago through to the present day.
Musically the band is exceptional, but I just can’t warm to the pop-drenched vocals that interject every time something monsterously heavy threatens and whisks you away to a whimsical place of rainbows and butterflies that my young girls may love but is merely an unwelcome and obtrusive detour from happiness to despair.
But, this isn’t just about me and I have to say that a massively high proportion of the crowd were enthralled by the theatrics and choreography that were lost on me, with pretty much everyone but me in my corner of the arena at the very least moving their hips and jumping with excitement throughout most of the set.
Lucky I don’t mind being the odd one out…
Florida musical hybrid A Day To Remember soon made Baby Metal a distant memory as they bounded onstage with intent and vocalist Jeremy McKinnon playfully asked the crowd if anyone liked metal. Of course the answer was a resounding yes, so the band launched into The Downfall of Us All then All I Want. Their amalgamation of genres provided a more attractive proposition than the band before, even enticing sections of the crowd to start skipping in a circle between early tracks. What the?
Crowd favourite I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of? hyped them up more before a wave of smoke rose from the stage almost in recognition for the positive fan reaction. I honestly never thought these guys were this heavy and instantly put them on my future to-do-list.
Then, almost as if to laugh in my face, ADTR throw in a punkier kind of track called Right Back At It Again that did just that to my musical compass that was thrown off course even more by a mass of confetti that spewed forth from stage and devoured all within striking distance.
But, as good as A Day To Remember were, nearly everyone in the crowd were rapidly turning their focus to the headlining act on next, working themselves into a sonic ball of anticipation that could only be tempered by the band who share their name with the event.
With Gary Wright‘s Dream Weaver teasing in the background tensions reached breaking point in anticipation before smoke billowed from stage to the strains of 742617000027 and a continuous loop of a child like voice demanding “come and play with us” filled the night sky with an almost hypnotizing regularity that was only broken when Slipknot walked on stage wearing their original white jumpsuits and stormed into (sic).
Frontman Corey Taylor silenced the crowd first, holding up one arm as he bowed his head in a passive/aggressive moment of connection with the massive crowd as guitarist Jim Root flexed his fingers in preparation for the ensuing 100 minutes of musical carnage that would inevitably follow. As Taylor screamed “this is a war!” during the track the sudden realisation that this was, in fact, a war of sorts smothered the crowd as People = Shit quickly followed before Taylor asked if we wanted to hear a song Slipknot had never played live to us before.
Strangely no-one answered no, so the band treated us to Gematria (The Killing Name) that was made even more special when, as Taylor spat the lyrics “we will burn your cities down” the heavens opened up ever so slightly as if daring to question his authority. I shit you not.
There was a touching moment when, as Taylor stood alone out front of stage, the chant of “Corey, Corey, Corey” went up, building to an almost deafening roar until Taylor quited the voices with the raise of his hand before giving a speech dedicated to Clown and his family after Clown and his son had to return home due to a family emergency.
Wait And Bleed, No Life, Yen and The Devil In I followed before a subtle version of Tattered and Torn provided a moment of respite that was cut short by the intro to The Heretic Anthem that once more whipped the crowd into a frenzy before the triple punch of Psycosocial, Unsainted and Duality pushed them over the metaphorical edge. There were frequent moments where the crowd overpowered Taylor‘s vocals, with the frontman on more than one occasion lowering the microphone and preferring to listen to the chorus of happy fans ringing back at him.
When Slipknot bade their farewells at the conclusion of Duality not one person left satisfied – even though they could have – safe in the knowledge that Slipknot would not dare leave us without at least playing Spit It Out. And they were right, as the members of Slipknot dutifully trudged back on stage as the swirling intro to said song filled the air before Taylor sang/asked “did you ever give a damn in the first place, maybe it’s time you had the tables turned…” and, as expected, the verdict was GUILTY and the world seemed seemed whole again.
Surfacing and Scissors closed out the set, bringing Brisbane Knotfest 2025 to a triumphant close that will long live in the memories for those fortunate enough to be present. Slipknot have once again delivered on an emphatic scale. Here’s to the next 25 years!
