Review Summary: This album will be a pleasant surprise for those who give it a chance.
Rummaging through my old closet of CD's at my old house that I lived in through out middle school was an adventure. I found a lot of memories, and a lot of Nu-metal. While I'd like to pretend that it doesn't happen, there's occasional days that I will revisit the primitive days of my music taste (Korn, Slipknot, Staind, etc.) and I will actually find myself enjoying some of it. The day that I decided to clean out my closet (for the lack of a better phrase) was one of those days in which I decided to give these old CD's a chance. Among those CD's was a album that I'm actually not ashamed to admit that I still like today, Mudvayne's L.D. 50.
Being Mudvayne's debut album, and coming out in the early 2000's, Mudvayne had to find a way to stand out from their peers. While I must say that the face paint wasn't exactly the best way to do so, I can say that the music on L.D. 50 does do a good deal in differentiating Mudvayne from their competitors. On this album, Mudvayne seems to have combined elements of the time's ever so popular nu-metal genre, and a few elements of math, and I'm pretty happy to say the concoction of it is a pretty unique sound.
While there are tracks on this album that are very nu-metal friendly, even those tracks don't seem to get in the way of this albums ambitions to be different. A good example of these tracks would be the album's lead single, "Dig". This track features a really aggressive, urgent sound to it. Coupled with screamed vocals, frantic whispering, and a spectacular rhythm section, this track is a great single. But while it very well may be a great single, it's not quite a great indicator of what the rest of the album has in store. After an equally as straight-forward "Internal Primates Forever", we get the first taste of progressive song writing with "-1". The track fades in with some reverby, dreamy guitar, and it's a nice change of pace that doesn't feel sudden in the flow of the album. Here, we get a lot of the better sides of what L.D. 50 has to offer. With this track, you can peer more into the lighter side of Mudvayne, along with the fore-mentioned complicated sound this album offers.
Tracks like "Prod" later on in the album are able to cement the album's progressive nature. We've got some quite impressive dynamics, with the track's duration ranging from hushed verses, to a chorus working with stop-go mechanics. Another particularly impressive track can be found in "Pharmaecopia", which features a spastic, fever dream inspired verse and a layered chorus with nice textures on the guitars and vocals, and it's a pretty good indication of how the whole album sounds.
Tracks like "Death Blooms" are always a nice change in pace from the spastic nature of the rest of the album. Being the second single off of L.D. 50, and rightfully so, it features some clean vocals with a really catchy chorus, so it's no wonder that this song is the single. After "Death Blooms", we've got the second interlude track of the album, this time around just as equally haunting as the last. "Cradle" fades in from the ambiance, and we get a second show case of Mudvayne's dynamic ability. "Nothing to Gein" is up next, and this song is perhaps another prime example of the math style on this album. The song alters in time signatures constantly, featuring some sporadic riffs towards the end of it's taxing run time of five and a half minutes.
The Musicianship on this album is rather impressive. The album features a tight vocal performance, like on tracks like "Severed", in which lead vocalist Chad Grey is audibly grinding his together, belting out admittedly cringy yet seemingly genuine lyrics "JUST WANNA RUN AWAY TO DIE". The rhythm section on the album is also quite impressive, as bassist Ryan Martinie and drummer Matthew McDonough are able to lock in perfectly together, with them taking the front grounds at points, with Ryan's above and beyond bass parts. Guitarist Greg Tribbett's contributions aren't quite huge in stature, yet it contributes to the albums sound in the classic "sometimes less is more" manor.
What seems to be the most impressive part of L.D. 50 is its forward-thinking re-imagining of what mainstream metal could have been. With some tracks on this album spotting 6-7 minutes ((K)now (F)orever being the longest at 7:06), it's safe to say that some of the songs could be considered rather progressive in nature. The album features small interlude segments in between songs every once and a while that help tie the album together, which is always very nice. These little interludes not only make the album flow, but they also help solidify this album as more of a statement as a whole, rather than the individual songs being statements of their own.
Overall, Mudvayne in my opinion was able to differentiate themselves from the nu-metal curve of their time with L.D. 50. The album's rawness, coupled with it's forward thinking spin on the nu-metal genre make it a stand-out album among the bands peer's studio efforts.
In an interview, drummer Matthey McDonough said something that I think applies very well to this album when asked if the band was irritated by those who only focus on the heavy aspect of their sound. He said:
"You don't necessarily have to understand intellectually what's going to enjoy what we do. And then, the content's there if you want to take that route. So, I mean, it's there if you want it, but if not, that's fine also."
To me, this perfectly describes this album for me. The album, while at parts technical, can still appeal to a wider audience than they originally intended for. And that's what makes this album truly solid for anyone into heavy music.
