With the "we're still sweating over the threat of downloading" chart world churning out an artist's album and top three singles within as many months in an effort to carpet bomb the market, it seems a true irregularity that any band could be on the verge of releasing its third single from an album that hit the shelves well over a year ago, never mind be riding through a whole year of festivals on said LP.

Welcome to Slipknot's world, which consists of doing whatever the heck they like in view of the fact they've sold more records than most of the godfathers of heavy metal put together, and are masters of the ever important"stage show".

As much as this should lead me to proceed to slate this masked bunch as a pathetically choreographed gimmick, the third sample from their last opus Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses is actually quite good. A killer (if a little overused) riff forms the backbone of a considerably stripped-down, old school metal number, complete with chorus of mammoth proportions and harmonics to make Zakk Wylde blush. As ever it's Joey Jordison's astonishing talent at tub-thumping that steals the show, which is quite an achievement given that I'm informed there are eight other musicians on this track.