Sunday, July 3, 2016

Music Review #43:
Mudvayne
Mudvayne
2009
Epic Records








MUDVAYNE makes an amazing return with their 2009 eponymous album! Wow, I cannot say enough about how good this album is. Of course, this band isn't unfamiliar to produce metal masterpieces. In fact, their 2002 release of The End of All Things to Come is the current highest rated alternative metal album on this site with a rating of a whopping 4.86/5. This album also marks the 3rd album to have the band members using their normal names once again.

I know I'm not the only who hails MUDVAYNE's self titled as a great comeback. It has been noted and been a general consensus that this album is great. And no wonder; these guys take the meaning of alt. metal to a whole new and magnificent level. This album contains so many great tracks that it's hard to jot them all down.

The most mainstream song on the album may perhaps be 'Scream With Me', with more clean vocals than other MUDVAYNE songs. But that doesn't mean it's bad, oh no, it's great. The great bass and acoustics make the song unusual for the band, but still excellent. The thrash-y 'Closer' is another interesting and great track. The opener, 'Beautiful and Strange' also retains the same quality of 'Closer' with a thrash opening as well and rolling drums and pounding bass and guitar lines. My favorite has to be 'Burn the Bridge', being a little more vocal concentrated as opposed to just screaming guitars and bass. It just plays with slightly more meaning than perhaps the other songs, making it my favorite.

It has to said that this release is very prog-metallic. In some circumstances, I would even juxtapose this with some of the work of TOOL and ALICE IN CHAINS, two alternative/progressive metal bands that use different sounds according to their genre. And in this case, MUDVAYNE is up there with them. Sure, MUDVAYNE owes some of their sound to other bands, but in my opinion, they've evolved enough to be able to firmly stand their own ground amongst the metal community.



2016 - The Frying Pan & Thatcher 
Originally written for Metal Music Archives on 12/13/2014.
Visit the site at www.metalmusicarchives.com

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