Riff Police! Pull Over! #132: Legend Vs Slipknot!

“This is another me-and-Paul [Gray, bassist] creation. It was similar to ‘Duality’, in that I had mixed feelings about whether it was a good song… Then we got together and started working on it as a team and it just came together. A lot of bands, who I won’t name, have ripped this song off. I guess you know you’ve done something good if everyone rips you off” ~ Joey Jordison

Despite receiving a mixed reception, the dark fourth studio album from Iowanise titans Slipknot entitled “All Hope Is Gone” was hugely commercially successful when it dropped by via Roadrunner Records in 2008. Recorded at Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica Iowa with Dave Fortman (Mudvayne, Godsmack), all nine members of the band inking 30 songs together for the first time. Arguably the albums finest moment is “Psychosocial“, a song with not only a sing-a-long chorus from Corey Taylor but also a chantable stomping post chorus which sees the eighteen legged Juggernaut’s percussive trio in full effect. So what was Joey Jordison referencing? Well one prime example is “Parasite” by Legend. It appears on the bands 2011 Rise Records album “The Pale Horse“, which saw former Bury Your Dead vocalist make a guest appearance on “Numbers” as well as appearances from Impending Doom frontman Brook Reeves on “Four Horsemen” and of all people Caleb Shomo of Beartooth on “Shadow Stalker“. An album full of huge breakdowns, crushing riffs and the gutteral growls from the depths of the Mariana Trench, the sounds of “Parasite” make you stop in your tracks…