Editor’s Note: Last Band Standing is the Daily’s weekly battle to the death between pop stars armed only with their latest singles.

The Fight

Face-off: Emerging from Iowa, Slipknot surprised the world and the music industry by selling nearly 2 million copies of its self-titled major label debut with almost no video or radio support.

Stunning rhythms provided by the masked madmen’s three drummers crush all competition. Add a frontman with a highly diverse vocal range and cryptic, non-clich‚ lyrics and you have an unstoppable metal force.

Linkin Pool of Mudd has plenty of radio and video support and pop hooks made to attract tons of 13-year-old “Total Request Live” devotees.

With the backing of rap/rock king Fred Durst, the cookie- cutter hardcore band is ready to stick its middle finger up and whine and scream about how hard it is to date models.

Weak link: Some people lump Slipknot in with all the other generic hardcore bands, a fact that could stop Iowa’s pride from achieving world domination. Linkin Pool of Mudd sounds like every other heavy, gravel-voiced Kornabee out there, saturating the airwaves with poor music that will hopefully be forgotten soon.

The winner: Slipknot is well on its way to world domination, beating the competition with a sonic and visual onslaught that doesn’t cater to MTV or radio.

 
JD KM
beats: 4 5
originality: 5 5
lyrics: 4 3
voice: 5 3
image: 5 4
 

 
JD KM
beats: 3 3
originality: 1 2
lyrics: 1 2
voice: 1 3
image: 1 1