Review Summary: A game you wouldn't want to play.
In retrospect it’s hard to watch some bands start off with high potential and end up plummeting to the ground, crashing and burning. Mudvayne kicked the underground metal scene in the face with their 2000 progressive, NU-Metal masterpiece
L.D 50; before shifting to an easier and more accessible sound pallet – that had all the Mudvayne functions included but was made easier to listen to, including soaring melancholy choruses – in the form of
The End of All Things to Come. Quality, post sophomore release, dips around the time
Lost and Found landed. The album title ironically summed up the band at this point in time; with the core sound being swallowed up by even more radio-friendly tunes. However, no one could have predicted just how badly Mudvayne f*cked up with their 2008 LP
New Game.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this abomination, it’s important to know the events that led up to this point. In 2006 Mudvayne frontman Chad and guitarist Gregg formed the “supergroup” Hellyeah with Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul. Hellyeah are a beer swilling, drywall smashing, party-crashing Southern-Metal band that was originally conceived with the memory of Dimebag Darrell at heart. The band is the polar opposite to the music Mudvayne were making in their creative years: Southern grooves with “party-hard” lyrical content – booze, bitches and partying. Hellyeah are typically my worst nightmare and an acquired taste; their songs aim to be light-hearted anthems for having a good time to, and that’s fine, so long as they don’t mix it with their day job...
So, two bands at either end of Metal spectrum, respect both for what they are, sure. But for some reason, Hellyeah has had a lasting effect on Chad and Gregg, incorporating elements from the supergroup into this LP and is one of the biggest problems with
New Game’s core sound. The first telltale sign something is wrong is found in the production of the album. The opening track begins with the terribly weak clanking sound of Ryan’s piss poor bass tone, while Gregg fills the silence using his trusty Fisher Price guitar, plugged into the free trail Chinese pro-tools knock off he just started using the day of recording; Gregg’s guitar tone sounds horrendous, sounding more like one of them awful default effects you get on a keyboard. To make matters worse the production ruins any potential build up in the intro and when it kicks in it ends up deflating like a wet balloon. All of the tracks transitions range from awkward to terribly awkward, as songs like “A Cinderella Story” and “Dull Boy” stagger to their finishing conclusions. Riffs are generic and boring when the album is at its best. And the album is further crippled by terrible, generic guitar solos that sound like recycled shreds that didn’t make the cut on Hellyeah’s debut.
Probably the worst aspect of this album is landed on Chad’s god-awful lyrics. How the hell this man went from
L.D 50’s loosely conceptual topics of pharmaceutical medication and evolution to singing songs that are aimed at angsty teens I’ll have no idea. But let me tell you, it’s not even the topics that are the problem, its Chad’s dumbfounded execution. “Dull Boy” is not only the worst Mudvayne song ever devised, it makes songs like Meghan Trainor’s “All About the Bass” look like it has intellect. The song is seemingly about a man being thrown into insanity, but the opening lyrics and song title are blatantly obvious references to Stanley Kubrick’s
The Shining. The track begins with:
“All work and no play makes me a dull boy..
All work and no play makes me a dull boy..
All work and no play makes me a dull boy..
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES ME A DULL BOY!!”
before kicking in to one of the most laughable transition I’ve heard. The song is a complete mess and everything from vocals to lyrics to composition left me face-palming the whole way through. Other lyrical masterpieces are found on tracks like “Same Ol’” which starts off:
“Always just the same ol' thing
I don't mind going hungry, it's the *** that you feed
I don't mind being broken, lost my will to believe
I don't mind being left to waste, to rot
Mow me down like a weed... so what
So I just don't fit, it's who I wanna be”
before ending in horrible fashion with:
“What? So what?
What? So what?
What? So what?
What? So what?”
It’s an easy assumption, this is some of the most mindless drivel you’re likely to hear, and the fact the band let the LP come out as it is speaks volumes for as to where everyone’s head was at the time.
Is there a single redeeming quality on here? As it happens, Chad’s vocals are the best thing on here. Sometimes melodies are catchy in tracks like “Scarlett letters” but even then, Chad’s performance is questionable a lot of the time.
Overall, this is a clusterf*ck of an album. It’s hard to pinpoint where the problems start, but I think influence from Hellyeah was taken into the Mudvayne bandcamp, and while these elements aren’t nearly all the problem, they don’t help matters. “You don’t sh*t where you eat” is the perfect term for this. And while Mudvayne’s 2009 self-titled LP is an improvement, this left a huge hole to climb out of.
AVOID.
