Slipknot

When Slipknot chose the title All Hope Is Gone for their fourth studio album, they definitely weren't referring to the expectations of their audience. If anything, when the album dropped last summer, the band's legion of fans got everything it wished for in the form of a hard-rocking collection of familiar-sounding nu-metal anthems. Packed with more screaming rants and power chords than a kid in bondage pants could shake his wallet chain at, the release proved single-handedly that the music of 1998 could still sell. The band's longevity is especially impressive given the cluttered nature of the genre that it emerged from. Like any trend, mall metal gained popularity even as it was rife with copycat competition. Although Slipknot was criticized early on for the gimmicky masks of its nine-member lineup, the group eventually established itself as more than a fad by outlasting and outperforming many of its contemporaries. Now that the band's fans (affectionately called "maggots") have a new chunk of material to devour, it's time for the Iowa-based band to put back on their trusty garbage man outfits and Halloween masks and head out on the road for one more tour.