Review: Slipknot parties like it’s 1999 at Aftershock Festival

Slipknot had something really cool in store for old-school fans at the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento on Friday.

The topnotch metal act — known outside of its massive fanbase primarily for wearing creepy masks — wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its debut album by taking listeners on a trip back to when that double-platinum-selling eponymous outing was first released.

“Welcome back to 1999,” lead vocalist Corey Taylor informed the huge crowd assembled for the band’s headlining set on Day 2 of the festival. “You will not hear one song written after 1999 tonight.”

Of course, Taylor understood that possibly not everyone would be thrilled with this concert itinerary, which the band has been performing on its current tour. It means missing out on so many top Slipknot cuts from later albums. Yet, he also knew that the most dedicated “maggots” — the band’s nickname for its fans — would certainly dig this turn of events.

“For the casual fan — sorry,” he said. “For the maggots who’ve been there since Day 1, this is our way of saying thank you.”

Staying true to their word, the mighty metal men of Slipknot — Taylor, guitarists Jim Root and Mick Thomson, turntable specialist Sid Wilson, bassist-keyboardist Alessandro Venturella, percussionist Michael Pfaff and brand spanking new drummer Eloy Casagrande — stuck entirely to the band’s first album during the show

Prepping the crowd with a bit of Gary Wright’s decidedly un-metal anthem “Dream Weaver” (of course) and then the same “742617000027” intro found on that debut album, Slipknot took the stage and immediately began erecting a towering a set from tunes from the original platter.

They also sewed in a few bonus numbers bonus numbers from various import/reissue editions, including a simply scalding version of the underrated gem “Me Inside.”

“Are you ready for some deep (expletive) cuts, California?” Taylor asked to an audience that was “all in” from the very start.

The Iowa outfit sounded as muscular as ever as it initially stuck to the record’s actual track listing, thundering through “(sic),” “Eyeless” and “Wait and Bleed” — the last of which being the album’s biggest hit. Yet, it eventually departed from the track listing and started mixing things up in interesting ways — such as playing “No Life” and “Only One” to close the main set, without including the usual “Diluted” between the two.

Slipknot finished up its triumphant return to 1999 with a blistering encore built from “S” numbers — “Spit It Out,” “Surfacing” and, finally, “Scissors,” which is indeed the last “listed” track on the original album.

Slipknot wasn’t the only act celebrating a big anniversary on Day 2 of Aftershock. Mighty Mastodon was also in a highly nostalgic mood, showing why it ranks alongside Slipknot, Gojira and a select few others as one of the top metal acts of this still-young 21st century. The band delivered a set focused entirely on 2004’s “Leviathan,” a stone-cold metal classic that — 20 years after the album’s release — still sounds so adventurous and forward-thinking. This was, without a doubt, the set of the day.

Others may argue with that assessment and (very understandably) counter with Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg, which found the drummer and his solid band nicely reawakening such 2-minute-plus-long Ramones classics as “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker,” “We’re a Happy Family” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.”

Other acts performing on Friday included Evanescence, Five Finger Death Punch and Juliette & the Licks.

Slipknot setlist (based on our notes and information from Setlist.fm)

1. “742617000027”
2. “(sic)”
3. “Eyeless”
4. “Wait and Bleed”
5. “Get This”
6. “Eeyore”
7. “Tattered & Torn”
8. “Me Inside”
9. “Liberate”
10. “Frail Limb Nursery”
11. “Purity”
12. “Prosthetics”
13. “No Life”
14. “Only One”
Encore:
15. “Mudslide”
16. “Spit It Out”
17. “Surfacing”
18. “Scissors”

(Note: Some of these songs were played on tape as interludes.)