Slipknot’s newest release, All Hope Is Gone, is exactly what fans have been hoping for.

Throughout the entirety of their previous album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Versus, Slipknot embraced gothic melody rather than the brutal heaviness of the Iowa album, resulting in catchier tunes. It felt as though much of the band’s anger had been controlled, or at least repressed.

While “Gemetra (the Killing Name),” “Sulfur,” “Psychosocial” and “Wherein Lies Continue” all deliver the volatile rage of Iowa, “The Cold Black” and title track “All Hope is Gone” stand above all.

“The Cold Black” is an attack on every object that is in the way of the band. It is war without purpose and is amazingly constructed, offering insane guitar riffs, battering percussion pieces, brain-pounding bass lines and deadly screams.

“All Hope is Gone” offers an apocalyptic vision in which the government is to blame and the people are living by a principle of “every man for himself.” The people then decide to take the law into their own hands and destroy everything, as was promised in “Gemetra (The Killing Name).” More screams are offered all the way to the end of the album.

For fans of Vol. 3, “Dead Memories” and “Gahenna” offer creeping gothic melodies and disturbing lyrics. “Dead Memories” stands out with “We were never alive and we won’t be born again,” while the hook in “Gahenna” is filled with beautifully dissonant vocal lairing.

The album’s odd-ball is “Snuff.” The song sounds inappropriate for Slipknot and more suited for vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root’s side project, Stone Sour. The song has more of an alternative rock feel and less of Slipknot’s heavy metal feel. The song is not bad, just misplaced.

Overall, this album is exactly what thousands of maggots (the title given to Slipknot fans) have been waiting for – a brutal attack on all things that exist, and a promise of the destruction of the currently defective society. All Hope is Gone delivers 12 brutal yet flowing tracks, easing up only to shatter the eardrums of unsuspecting listeners. Slipknot has granted listeners with a must-have album for the genre’s enthusiast.