okay, I believe shred has it's place, it all god a bit shred centric back at the arse end of the 80's, but then it went too far the other way, people actively avoiding solos because apparently 'do nothing for the song' there has to be a balance, I wouldnt think a groovy blues ridden bendy solo would fit into a 240bpm death metal song, it's all about what fits the music, as long as the guitar can be played fast, there will be fast players.
And although slipknot seem like a gimmicky band, both guitarists are VERY good, listen to stone sour for jim's playing, and mick did a session with a british guitar mag, he had samples of his stuff on the cover CD and it was at a very high standard, plus he will be playing lead guitar on the forthcoming death tribute album.
I get sick of people bashing slipknot, surely what many of you are arguing here applies, they obviously have the chops, but dont feel the need to fill every song with them? I personally like slipknot a great deal, there is an extremely high level of musicianship in the band, and I dont think 10 million people can be wrong!!

just throwing my opinions in!

oh and my setup, I play extreme metal a la shadows fall, lamb of god, I use a BC rich gunslinger with duncan distortion pickup in the bridge, through a tubescreamer, into a Roland cube30 mic'ed up through the PA, it's great for everything, rhythm, lead and bluesy quiet parts! I
also have a PRS singlecut which I use when I'm playing at home, or recording!