Slipknot are back with their fourth album, `All Hope Is Gone', recorded this spring in Slipknot's home state and co-produced by the band and Dave Fortman (Evanesence), mixed by Colin Richardson (Machine Head).All Hope is Gone is more of a statement than a record. Corey Taylor comments, "Every album we have made is a statement about that space in time. I think this era is the most mature, most beautiful and the most powerful. We have made an album that will show the road behind, the road ahead, and where we are as men. I think it's the best thing I've ever made. And I challenge anyone to prove me wrong." The album blends element of 2004's Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and 2001's Iowa, while adding a perspective, freshness and depth that only three years apart can bring. The first single "Psychosocial" is a bruising, anthemic stomper that only the `Knot can master, while follow-up `Dead Memories' sears with blistering melody .  For most bands, the process of experimentation involves infusing more traditional song structures with weirder, or less familiar sonic elements. Not so for Iowa?s Slipknot. All Hope Is Gone, the metal neuftet?s fourth full-length, finds them further mining the seam that produced 2004?s Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses, adulterating their caustic, percussion-heavy take on thrash metal with acoustic guitars and anthemic choruses. Present too, though, is a heaviness that harkens back to 2001?s aggressive Iowa, meaning the likes of "Psychosocial" and "Dead Memories" mix big, inclusive vocal hooks with bulldozing low-end and savage percussion breakdowns set to arcane time signatures. Nor is it all set to formula: "Butcher?s Hook", for instance, sounds nothing like anything in Slipknot?s catalogue to date. It is a slamming funk-metal track not unlike The Rollins Band, with broiling! anti-establishment lyrics and a huge call-and-response chorus. The occasional Nickelback-like chorus might appall the diehards, but Slipknot are still stretching themselves, and All Hope Is Gone stands up to anything in their catalogue. --Louis Pattison