Naming your seventh release after the band is a pretty good way of indicating that you’re making a definitive statement. Turns out, that’s not the case with Mudvayne.
Refreshed by his stint with hayseed cock-rockers Hellyeah, vocalist Chad “Kud” Grey attempts to bring a new sense of heaviness to Mudvayne’s tried-and-true mallcore esthetic. Generally speaking, the lay of the land remains unaltered as Mudvayne’s by-now-signature surging bass lines and primal rhythms swirl around moody cuts like “Strange and Beautiful” and the ultra-slick guitar-dominated “Closer.” Despite showing some sharpening of the band’s technical prowess on punishing overtures such as the ominous “I Can’t Wait” and the throat-wracking “Scream With Me,” this album could easily be swapped out for 2001’s The Beginning of All Ends to Come or 2002’s The End of All Things to Come, which are already pretty much interchangeable anyways. Disappointingly, Mudvayne has rain-checked this opportunity to turn over a nu-metal leaf and divest itself of an increasingly dated sound.
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