Of course there are two Slipknot members in Stone Sour. You can read all about that in the interview with Corey Taylor and Josh Rand on this site so I’ll skip all that.
Stone Sour are primarily a rock band. The sound is modern (down tuned) and heavy but the songs have a well thoughtout structure. The album starts off with ‘Get Inside’, one of the more aggressive songs and closest to Slipknot. Taylor’s vocals are surprisingly melodic and mostly clean. The music is varied. ‘Cold Reader’ for example has a bridge with a groove that no Slipknot fan would ever accept. In Stone Sour it’s all possible. ‘Blotter’ for instance starts with the kind of riff Machine Head wouldn’t be ashamed of playing (great bass sound by the way) while the chorus of ‘Monolith’ is almost post-grunge.

The lyrics are way more personal than what Taylor sings with Slipknot. Although the band doesn’t show off there are some pretty neat guitar solos and drum patterns on this record. The ballad ‘Bother’, which is also featured on the Spiderman soundtrack, is destined to be a single. The album does weaken a little after three quarters but ‘Tumult’, a Prong styled metal song, picks it up. Taylor’s spoken word ‘Omega’ finishes the album as if to emphasize the fact that there’s more than screaming and running around in a mask and boiler suit.