Seven Deadly Sins

June 13, 2011
Fans of the heavy metal band Slipknot will eagerly devour its lead singer/songwriter Taylor's first book, which displays a prose that perfectly captures the supercharged energy, aggression, and outrageousness of Slipknot's music ("I was still kicking emotional crabs out of my soul crotch, reaching for the razor while rinsing out the Rid"). Starting with the premise that the seven deadly sins should be changed to "the seven petty sins," since the old ones are outdated and "barely PG-13," he ends by offering a list he calls the New Seven Deadly Sins," which include murder, child abuse, rape, and torture. In between, he barrels through his personal takes on positive aspects of the seven sins, such as his view of greed, "where one man's greed is another man's ambition" that "could cure cancer" even if that man only wants "the money that the patents will bring in." Overall, his hope is that people will "stop holding themselves back even slightly and start realizing potential they never dreamed existed," a hope that survived a harrowing childhood in a small Midwestern townâ"a cornucopia of racism, malicious intent, and ignorant torrents of pain" that he describes in the book's most powerful and moving chapter.