Editing Iowa (album) (section)

==Music and lyrical themes==
Prior to its release, members promised a much darker and heavier album than ''Slipknot'', and many sources praised the band for fulfilling their promises.<ref name="NuWorld" /> In 2008, percussionist [[Shawn Crahan]] recalled: "When we did ''Iowa'', we hated each other. We hated the world; the world hated us."<ref>{{cite news |title = Slipknot's Clown Talks About Upcoming Album |work = Blabbermouth |date = January 9, 2008 |url = http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=88079 |access-date = January 10, 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080112105145/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=88079 |archive-date = January 12, 2008 |df = mdy-all }}</ref>

''Iowa'', unlike its predecessor, saw Robinson capturing the band's technicality as opposed to the raw energy which ''Slipknot'' became known for.<ref name="NME">{{cite web| last = Segal| first = Victoria| title = Slipknot: Iowa |work=NME |location=UK| date = August 22, 2001| url = https://www.nme.com/reviews/slipknot/5924| access-date = March 21, 2008}}</ref> The band was also praised again for its use of an extended line-up consisting of additional percussionists, turntables, and programmed samples. ''[[NME]]'' stated that "every possible space is covered in scrawl and cymbals: guitars, percussion, electronic squall, subhuman [[screaming]]."<ref name="NME" /> ''Iowa'' has also been critically acclaimed as one of the only mainstream musical albums to feature [[blast beat]] percussion, and was said to heighten its popularity after release.<ref>Ellis, Graham, "Decade of Horror," ''Terrorizer'' issue 184, June 2009, p. 25.</ref>

Although ''Iowa'' became widely regarded as the band's heaviest album to date, some tracks incorporate melody, most apparent in the record’s singles such as "[[My Plague]]" and "[[Left Behind (Slipknot song)|Left Behind]]". During the album's thirteenth anniversary, ''[[Revolver (magazine)|Revolver]]'' recalled that the record is "their most extreme album yet". They compared several songs, namely "Disasterpiece," "People = Shit" and "[[The Heretic Anthem]]" as more [[death metal]]-influenced than most of the {{nowrap|[[nu metal]]}} that the album contained.<ref name=extreme-metal>{{cite web|title=Interview: Slipknot Look Back on the Making of 'Iowa'|url=http://www.revolvermag.com/news/interview-slipknot-look-back-on-the-making-of-iowa.html|publisher=[[Revolver Magazine|Revolver]]|access-date=August 17, 2015|date=August 28, 2014|quote="Fortunately, the band members were able to channel their animosity into their music, creating their most extreme album yet. Songs like "Disasterpiece," "People = Shit," and "The Heretic Anthem" draw far more from death metal's scathing currency than nu-metal's trendy angst."}}</ref> While the album does have elements of [[hip hop music]], ''Iowa'' has less hip hop elements than Slipknot's self-titled album, and instead draws its influences moreso on heavy genres like death metal and [[hardcore punk]].<ref name=HarvardCrimson>{{cite news |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2001/11/9/heavy-metal-the-pledge-of-allegiance/ |title=Heavy Metal |newspaper=[[The Harvard Crimson]] |last=Packard |first=Michael T. |date=November 9, 2001}}</ref> The title track is also known for being the band’s longest continuous song released, clocking in at just over 15 minutes.

''Iowa'' follows the lyrical style that vocalist [[Corey Taylor]] established on Slipknot's debut; it includes strong use of [[metaphor]]s to describe dark themes including [[misanthropy]], [[solipsism]], [[disgust]], anger, disaffection, [[psychosis]], and rejection.<ref name="NME" /><ref name="RS">{{cite magazine |last = Fricke |first = David |title = Iowa album review |magazine=Rolling Stone |date = September 17, 2001 |url = https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/slipknot/albums/album/146645/review/5942405/iowa |access-date = February 22, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071002075208/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/slipknot/albums/album/146645/review/5942405/iowa |archive-date = October 2, 2007 | url-status = dead}}</ref> The album also includes many expletives; David Fricke of the ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine said "there isn't much shock value left in the words fuck and shit, which Taylor uses in some variation more than forty times in ''Iowa''{{'}}s sixty-six minutes."<ref name="RS" /> Fricke went on to praise Taylor's performance on the track "Iowa", comparing it to a "vivid evocation of a makeshift-cornfield grave at midnight."<ref name="RS" />

"Disasterpiece", said Taylor, "is my favorite Slipknot song. We started doing [[pre-production]] for the album in a warehouse in Iowa itself. I had [[laryngitis]] and couldn't sing a note, so I was writing a lot of ideas down. When I heard them play 'Disasterpiece', I just wrote 'No one is safe' in huge letters. I knew from then that we were going to rip the throat out of the world with 'Disasterpiece'. That was the lynchpin for the whole album."<ref name="Bryant"/>