Album review: Mudvayne's 'The New Game'

The plot of Mudvayne's new album of growly aggro metal reads like a truck-stop Raymond Chandler novel. Someone killed your best friend, and because the small-town cops are useless, it's up to you to find out who did it. The shifty-eyed weed dealer with the simmering vendetta? The tweaking Vietnam vet overly fond of high-school chicks?

One thing Philip Marlowe would not do after a hard day of busting heads and breaking hearts is listen to Mudvayne. Although "The New Game" tries to instill a bit of dread with a goofily sordid narrative, it trawls some pimply musical terrain to get there. The album's gooey, mid-tempo grind at best evokes System of a Down stripped of ambition and eccentricity, and might elicit sympathy with whatever culprit is running around that no-stoplight town.

Mudvayne's oeuvre has long tried to reconcile vocalist Chad Gray's radio-ready inclinations with more menacing instrumental fare. The band should pick one card and play it, as almost tuneful single-bait like "Have It Your Way" and "Scarlet Letters" undermines the gnashing of "Dull Boy," which sounds like having a lukewarm bottle of Bud Lime broken over your skull.

Why this stuff still sells in an otherwise great time for metal is the real mystery here.

--August Brown

Mudvayne
"The New Game"
(Epic)
One star

Comments

[Dave41]

I have no idea where this critic comes off. Compare this album with L.D. 50 and there is definite evolution. With all the crap that is out nowadays Mudvayne is one of the few bands that we can stilll look forward to listening to. Music tastes are all preference and to give some jerkoff like this credit as a critic is just absurd. You're a dime a dozen my friend. I hope you don't make a living writing this stuff.

[Ray]

What an idiot August Brown is. How does he come off with such arrogance and with such a pompus attitude that he can make a statement like....."Why this stuff still sells in an otherwise great time for metal is the real mystery here."

[jOhnbOy9015]

you are crazy....this may not be LD 50 but its still great. Its alwas good to reinvent yourself some. They still have the mudvayne sound but with a twist....

[Stewart]

This cd is by far one of the best cd's out right now yeah it sounds a little different than their other things but who doesnt changes things anymore.. so if you dont like it just shut up and dont listen to it and let the rest of us true fans enjoy it

[Nate]

It's easy to sit at a desk and bash someone else's work. I bet August Brown will never have as much talent in his pinky as Mudvayne does. It's great that Mudvayne are moving forward with their music and not trying to release another clone from the past. If they did release another LD 50 critics would still talk trash. Judge for yourselves and not through others.

[BOBBY V.]

In a world where Metallica and Slipknot have decomposed to easy listening.There is still hope out there for the metal people who are looking for more than the 100 scream anything as loud and unintelligible as you can bands.Mudvayne delivered what I was waiting for this year. True to form is a lost art recently.Your review is as smug and repressed as the metal scene has been this year.

[Jon]

Epic has stunted and formed Mudvayne's growth into a market maching instead of letting them be the musical behemoth they used to be. When L.D.50 dropped it changed everything. It didn't take long for a major label to force the best thing to happen to modern metal in a very long time to do their bidding. Listen to Chad's lyrics from "End of All Things" until current day. They have not be allowed to make the music they need to make. I'm still a fan of theirs and I respect this band very much but I will skip past almost everything on this album. My only hope is that they can do what Sevendust did and break away from their label, make a true album, and get their musical souls back.

[Brad]

Ah. Don't even pay attention to this guy. He didn't even listen to the album. He might have listened to a little bit of it. He doesn't even describe the songs in detail. He only talks about the game you can play on Mudvayne's website if you buy it. Which is cool, cause I only read a little of his review.

[Adam]

This guy has no idea what the hell he is on about.
Each Mudvayne album relesed has a different theme & feel to it.
LD.50, TEOATTC, Lost & Found & The New Game.

They all have such different sounds, and it is all them together which makes Mudvayne so powerful. They are not stuck with the one style which most bands are suposingly meant to be.

The new game is definately a new style, and i 100% approve.
LD.50 is a perfect album, and i am glad they are not releasing LD.50 # 2. Because than they will become a bore.

As i have seen in reviews Mudvayne are losing props with this album, but on the same note so many more people are noticing them and seeing their greatness.

Mudvayne are perfect now more than ever.

[Irritated99]

I don't know why I even read reviews for bands I like. Every critic just tears them apart in order to sound creative. It's gotten so bad that there are sites out there where people write reviews for the review. It's like a little clique of people who are too untalented to do what these bands do so they tear them up to make them feel like they have a purpose. I'm glad I found a site where some people are standing up for the band, well done.

[Sean]

This guy is a complete retard. I thought the album was great, and like all their other albums, it's taken them in a new direction. The different directions are a good thing, for even though L.D. 50 was an awesome album, who the hell wants 5 carbon copies of it? This type of review is spewing from the mouth of the same people that would rip them if that was the case. Maybe you should have focused your attention on the music instead of the "game". That's what I came for, stay the course Mudvayne, you guys rock.

[Irritated99]

There's a similar and even more ignorant review on this awful site: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=27989
If you are a mudvayne fan, go here and bust these people down a notch like you all did for this article's author.

[Glenn]

A lot of you people apparently havent been listening to Mudvayne even before they re-released their real first album, calling it The Beginning of all things to end. This album is a sell-out album, their music has been tuned to cater to a larger audience and most of it is just lame softer radio-friendly music. Only 2, maybe 3 exceptions exist on this album, but they are dulled out by the overload of mediocrity that is the New Game. This is basically comparable to horror movies going PG-13 to get a larger audience or having franchises being market in every way possible to net the most money.

After the release of Lost and Found I remained extremely excited for when their next album would release, hoping it would stay along the longs of LD 50 and LaF. In the end I was extremely disappointed in what has to be an effortless, dumbed-down and stripped of any imagination Lost and Found.

[Redstar]

This band is only a fraction of what they were on LD50. This is pure commercial drivel. Awful at best. Pick up the new Opeth, Cynic, Enslaved, or Communic album and enlighten yourself.

[Jfeltner]

AUgust Brown? WHat do you listen to snoopys soundtracks. What a retard, how about stepping off of your high horse and cleaning out your ears. There is one thing for sure about your rating, IT SUCKS. Your obviously a musical moron that has no clue to the new music scene and what people want to hear. Do you own a Mudvayne cd or are they all brittany spears and justin timberlake? What a dufus, and sorry to all the mudvayne fans that have to put up with mainstream idiots like this. Pantera had a whole career based off of mainstreamist liike this. Just listen to vulgar display of power and then far beyond driven. Phils lyrics say alot about idiots like this. Peace out everybody get the new The Blackening by machine head i have listend to it a million times and it keeps getting better and better.

[AVC]

How can people praise Mudvayne's past 2 albums after listening to L.D. 50 and the good music they used to produce. It's a shame that they've sold out (not re-invented) and mystifying that fans of L.D. 50 can appreciate, tolerate, and enjoy their new cookie-cutter radio music.

[w]

Spot on review. I have been a massive fan of the band since I first heard LD50 back in 2001. Their energy back then realy captivated me. Being a drummer myself, Matt was the focal point of my attention with Ryan a close second. The end of all things to come was a good progression from LD50, but with every release since being more and more diluted into mainstream metal, I find myself drifting away from this once fine foursome.

Without a doubt, in my opinion, HELLYEAH have been disasterous for Mudvayne. To be frank I don't know how Matt and Ryan have put up with things. Listening to the new record it sounds at times like Ryan and Matt are trying to play LD50 type parts underneath HELLYEAH guitaring and singing. True Mudvayne fans don't want this melodical rock stuff. We want pure, full on non-stop guitar riffing magic, crunching machinegun fill drums, with legendry impossible bass lines and mental torture inducing vocals of the LD50 album.

This is a plea to the band. Ditch the pop metal sound and get back to making REAL metal!

This is from a once diehard MUDVAYNE fan that would have stuck with you guys thru thick and thin, I now find myself a spectator. (Just incase you realease some of your old magic!)

I'll be sticking with the first two albums, ok maybe on occasion lost and found too!

[nisse]

the review is correct?
this album really isn't very good...

[Dustin]

This guy is retarted and should go find a job that better suits him.

[clowned]

August Brown is right on- In my opinion,like his PROFESSIONAL opinion, the New Game Sucks and Mudvayne sucks.

[king]

The reviewer probably likes coldplay, so he's opinios are void.

[Jake Price]

Wow .. Mostly everyone is bashing this August Brown dude. Well add one more to that list!! This guy is CRAZY. The new Mudvayne album is pretty dang impressive and for some lackluster, bottom-of-the-barrel critic to completely bash it is ludicrous. Hey August, lay off the Thesaurus next time too, ok? It makes your articles sound like a pathetic attempt to sound witty and poetic. Go review another genre and leave us "idiots" to buy this stuff to your befuddlement. <-- You like that word? I "August Brown'ed" it.

[KUDA]

03/06/09 3:07PM
Whatever happened to a thing called neutrality...you know, respecting the music for what it is...Come on, we are not talking Nickelback or Five Finger Death Punch here.
You cannot consider yourself a music buff and proclaim that Chad Gray has no talent or range and, that Ryan Martinie doesn't completely shine as a bassist(especially in the new album).
...NO, they are not what they were, but they aren't completely worthless as a band either. I gotta hand it to them for sticking it out through the nu-metal era, and retaining a techinical style that will continue to further them from the nu-metal genre in which they were lumped.

-KUDA
Myspace.com/Rockchick47

[rainer]

Anyone bashing this review knows not what metal is, let alone good music, let ALONE mudvayne. I once considered myself a fan of Mudvayne's, their music was ingenious and a breath of fresh air. I too am a musician, so their music was even better to me because it could be appreciated from a non-musician AND musician stance. But however good LD50 and The End of All Things To Come were, Lost & Found is where it started to slip. The songs were clearly aimed more at satisfying a perceived mainstream notion, with the better half of Mudvayne (Matt and Ryan) refusing to compromise creativity and musicianship for popularity. Then Chad and whatshisnuts the guitarist went off to do HELLYEAH, which was HELLACIOUSLY bad. Watered down, regurgitated drunk rock. As others have said, this whole straying from their true musicality and inspiration was the worst point for them. So whereas I was desperately hoping for a new Mudvayne album full of inspiration and maybe even an evolution of what they were, I popped in The New Game and found an utterly lacklusterpiece. Sure, there may be a glimmer of goodness in there, but those glimmers are brought to you rarely, and now it seems Matt and Ryan may be losing the strength to keep persisting. The drums were not nearly as creative and technical as they used to be and though still good, alongside the bass parts as well, they were just not as inspired.

I've listened to the album enough times to know what I'm talking about, and anyone who doesn't see the bad direction Mudvayne is taking is blind.

[Gabblar]

I thought this album was good but it really didn't satisfy me as a mudvayne fan. As a sound technician and aspiring recording producer, the thing that killed this album the most was the overall timbre of the mixing and recording. It's just so un-mudvayne sounding. There were some really sordidly satisfying heavy mudvayne riffs in some of the songs but they way they are mixed, seemed to remove the real mudvayne heavyness from them.

The producer himself, Dave Fortman said "the tones are a little more earthy sounding and a little warmer than Lost and Found." to me, Mudvayne isn't exactly a "warm" band. The thrill about their previous albums to me is the sheer chill about them, a chill that digs into your spine and deeply affects your emotions, a chill cold enough to invoke goosebumps as you listen, and on some occasions bring tears to your eyes.
To me, THAT is mudvyane a band who's music and lyrics "pull the string" inside me that trigger an emotional response. The new game, just didn't do those things to me.
"Never Enough" did to some extent, i got some good goosebumps out of that song but sadly, that's all i got from the album in terms of it touching my soul.

Was still mostly musically good. I recognise that this album is another step in their evolution as a band and as musicians and that i should respect that they are expanding their horizons and experimenting with techniques and styles. But in the process they kinda lost a great portion of what made them unique and appealing to me in their own mudvayne kinda way.

However, still money well spent. I certainly didn't find it a chore to listen to.

But that's just my opinion, man, that was quite a mouthfull of an opinion though. Thank you for reading, i hope you appreciate another voice in the sea of opinions out there!