Just because Iowa metalheads Slipknot have a DJ in their posse doesn’t mean they’re yet another Family Values rock & rap act. The band’s second LP is metal with a capital m, brutally intense and totally fucking scary. Simple mathematics dictates that nine guys can make twice as much noise as the average four- or five-member outfit. Adding mightily to their sound is Slipknot’s three-man percussion section, where one guy plays kettle drums made of titanium and another has a double-bass-drumkick as breakneck and relentless as Lars Ulrich’s. Amid the riffage – beefed up by record-scratching and weird, creepy sound loops – there are strands of melody, and on a few songs vocalist Corey Taylor even stops barking to sing. But when Taylor roars into the microphone like a hellhound as the band lets loose its more hardcore tendencies, Slipknot really get their ya-yas out. Korn and Limp Bizkit kicked open the door for this kind of left-of-the-dial metal; it’s only going to get more twisted from here. (RS 835) JENNY ELISCU