绝望深渊 (2008)

All Hope Is Gone is the fourth studio album by the American heavy metal band Slipknot, released on August 26, 2008 by Roadrunner Records. The album was published in two versions: the standard album in a CD case and a special edition packaged in a six-fold digipak containing three bonus tracks, a 40 page booklet, and a bonus DVD with a documentary of the album's recording. It is the band's final studio album to feature the Iowa-era lineup with two longtime members: bassist and founding member Paul Gray, who was found dead in an Iowa hotel on May 24, 2010, almost two years after the album's release, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was fired from the group in December 2013.

Preparation for the album began in 2007, while recording started in February 2008 in the band's home state of Iowa. Before the album's launch, Slipknot released a series of promotional images and audio samples from the album through various websites. All Hope Is Gone was considered the band's most eclectic-sounding album at the time of release, incorporating elements from their previous three. Songs such as the opening track "Gematria (The Killing Name)" and the title track espouse the band's more brutal, death metal-influenced edge, slow burning, "trippy" elements such as "Gehenna", and more tragic, sentimental tracks such as "Dead Memories" and "Snuff". Lyrically, All Hope Is Gone centers on themes such as anger, disaffection, obsession, and the music industry. The album name also features a more prominent focus on politics than their previous albums.

Slipknot promoted All Hope Is Gone on a world tour and at the Mayhem Festival. Generally well received by critics, the album reached the top position on nine record charts worldwide, including the Billboard 200—the first Slipknot album to do so. It was certified platinum by the RIAA on August 10, 2010 for shipments in excess of 1,000,000 albums in the United States.

Recording

Preparation for All Hope Is Gone began in 2007. Drummer Joey Jordison explained, "I've told them to demo whatever they can so we've got as much material to choose from as possible." In February 2008, Slipknot entered the Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa with producer Dave Fortman. All Hope Is Gone is the band's first album written and recorded in their home state of Iowa. Bassist Paul Gray explained that the band decided to record in Iowa because there were too many distractions in Los Angeles, where production of their previous albums had taken place. The band also stated that being close to home was good for their mindset; vocalist Corey Taylor drove home every night to see his son. Unlike Slipknot's previous releases, the album's writing process involved all nine band members, who wrote over 30 songs. Jordison commented, "I have to say that the band is at its peak; everyone—I mean everyone—is now completely involved in the writing process, and it's a beautiful thing." Taylor felt the writing process had some problems, but also noted that the creation of every Slipknot album has had conflict and that the band has come to embrace it after realizing that the conflict helps to bring out their creativity. Taylor and guitarist Jim Root paired up with Sid Wilson, performing on keyboards, and percussionist Shawn Crahan to work on "oblique, arty pieces". Taylor also experimented with tracking in an old well, stating, "There was this natural reverb to it that was just intense." According to Crahan none of the experimental tracks made it onto the album. However, one of them, "Til We Die", appears as a bonus track on the album's special edition along with "Child of Burning Time" and the similarly experimental Bloodstone mix of "Vermilion Pt. 2". The track "Sulfur" was the first combined effort of Jordison and Root, who wrote the song in one evening.

Many of the band members have expressed their dissatisfaction with All Hope Is Gone and consider it to be their least favorite Slipknot album. Feeling discontent over the record's production process, Root said, "it felt a little bit rushed. And it felt like we were trying to do things just to appease a schedule, which I didn't really like." Root was particularly disappointed with the record's producer, Dave Fortman, and said, "Dave Fortman really helped me appreciate Rick Rubin as a producer. [Fortman] wasn't able to get nine people together on the same page and, to me, that's the most important thing in making a Slipknot record." Conversely, Jordison said, "It's finally the record that I've wanted Slipknot to sound like." He went on to compliment Fortman's ear for tone, and considered All Hope Is Gone to be the band's best album. All Hope Is Gone was mixed by Colin Richardson in Miloco's The Engine Room studio in the United Kingdom.