6. SlipknotIowa

You can feel this collective pull from the depths of where they’re from. It’s interesting because they’re from Iowa, and their second album is called Iowa. They went back home in the process of making it, almost like an Essex Honey situation, but I did mine much later. The record hits with this raw, visceral intensity; it’s super dark, heavy, technical, and still feels like it’s pulling energy straight from the land itself. I still listen to it, play guitar along with it, and it never fails to hit.

To me, Iowa is one of my favorite metal albums. There are a few that I’d say I love, but that one holds a pretty crazy place. The intensity comes from the immediacy of their connection to home, they hadn’t yet left it, and that tension is captured in every note. It’s an album that goes beyond music: it’s about place, identity, and the kind of emotional weight that lingers long after the last track ends.