All Hope Is Gone

Preparation began in 2007, and in February 2008 Slipknot entered Sound Farm Studio in Jamaica, Iowa, with producer Dave Fortman. It was the first album the band wrote and recorded in its home state. Gray said they chose Iowa because Los Angeles, where the earlier albums were made, held too many distractions. All nine members took part in the writing, and more than 30 songs were written. Colin Richardson mixed the record. Experimental pieces made by a smaller group did not make the album, though one of them, 'Til We Die, appears as a bonus track on the special edition. Sulfur came from Jordison and Root, who wrote it in one evening.

Taylor explained the title as aimed at fan expectations: just when you think you have the band figured out, give up all hope. His lyrics are more political than on earlier records, and the opener .execute. answers a speech by former vice president Spiro Agnew to Vietnam War protesters. The members disagreed about the finished album. Root said it felt a little rushed, and Jordison said it was the record he had wanted Slipknot to sound like. New masks were shown on 1 July 2008, and the purgatory masks seen in earlier promotional photographs were burned in the video for Psychosocial.

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 239,516 units, the band's first to do so, and at number two in the UK, and it reached number one in Canada and eight other charts. It has been certified platinum in the US, UK and New Zealand. Metacritic gives it 68 from 14 critic scores. Spin's Aaron Burgess wrote that it proves there is "still musical unity in disharmony," and Dan Martin of the Guardian gave it four stars, calling Gematria (The Killing Name) "astonishingly dense thrash." The album is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.