Review Summary: A vivid and diverse journey through prog-tinged metal madness that towers above its peers in an otherwise stale, boring and outdated genre.
We were browsing the channels on my friend’s satellite at his house during the spring break of 8th grade. We came across a metal music video countdown on MTV2 and stopped there in hopes of seeing our favorite Disturbed or Linkin Park video. Once the video for “Stupify” came on, we giggled and mingled about how there would never be band that would top Disturbed; they could pull off extremely catchy Drop D riffs all while being brutal and accessible. This was our music. This was our identity. We called it fuc
king awesome. They called it nu-metal. Who were they? The ones who correctly label genres I suppose. We were blissfully unaware of these people; all we cared about was that this music gave us a fierce and brutal venue to channel our teen angst. We were convinced that nothing could dethrone our music.
Then a video by a makeup-wearing, obscenity-shouting angry outfit made its way from the TV to our ears.
The song was called “Dig”, and we didn’t really catch the band name because it wasn’t a real word and we were too busy being mesmerized by the captivating and strange video that accompanied this unusual song. It had the brutality and angry shouted vocals that we were familiar with, but it carried this indescribable quality with it. It was very eccentric and attention demanding; I for one didn’t care that I didn’t necessarily like it because I was so fascinated with it. There was something different about this band and I was determined to find out more. After watching the video a second time and making sure I had the band name right, I immediately bought the album from a kid at school since my parents wouldn’t buy me a CD with a Parental Advisory warning.
The first few listens of
L.D. 50 left me unsatisfied and a little frustrated; throughout the album, they would only play heavy and unrelenting like in “Dig” temporarily before it would suddenly change and I’d be grooving to a jazz-based section completely void of angsty vocals or chugging riffs. Plus there were all these seemingly pointless interludes that would stop the music just long enough to piss me off. Something in the music kept me coming back though, and it may have started with the almost solo-like drumming; this was the first album that really made we want to pursue drumming. My band attempted to play a few songs from this album, including “Dig” and “Death Blooms”, but we just couldn’t get it. Something was seriously missing when we tried to play these songs (besides talent), and we eventually figured out that it was a bassist. No, an amazing bassist. When you’re in junior high or high school, there is never an accomplished bassist in your town, so we gave up.
I hated Mudvayne for being better than me, but I forgave them and started listening to this album again. This time I picked up on extra things, like the carefully crafted atmosphere and seamless album flow. Things like the way “Monolith” introduces “Dig” and the rest of the album as a whole, or the way “Mutatis Mutandis” flows perfectly into “Everything and Nothing”.
L.D. 50 sucks you into its world and doesn’t let go until the very end. It also does many other cliches, like leave you breathless when the final act of “Severed” marks a hard-hitting return after a soaring and calming bridge. Almost every moment throughout the record is crafted with immaculate songwriting instead of mindless bullshi
t that commonly plagues the majority of nu-metal. The heavier moments are made up of aggressive yet unique chord progressions instead of repetitive chugfests, intelligent instrumentation (especially in the rhythm section) instead of run-of-the-mill performances and varied vocal techniques instead of monotonous yelling. The softer moments are just as captivating with the band showing their versatility and dynamic abilities.
A particularly haunting atmosphere blankets the listening experience all throughout the 17 tracks of
L.D. 50. Several interludes serve as well-placed breaks between the romps of sprawling intensity that are the actual songs, yet hold the songs together at the same time. They can be frustrating the first few listens, but the more I understood the album, the more I came to accept their purpose. Many corners of metal are explored here, from the unrelenting and double-bass driven “Dig” to the varied tempos of the wild and intense “Cradle” to the prog-tinged melodies of “Nothing to Gein”. The aforementioned rhythm section impresses by consistently playing above the standards of nu-metal, with notable examples (among others) being bassist Ryan Martinie’s lines in “Death Blooms” and drummer Matt McDonough’s clever use of the entire kit in “Prod”. Mudvayne simply refuse to fall into the trap of monotony by crafting songs that are all very different from each other, and the replay value is immensly boosted because of it. Elaboration of the gentler moments create an extremely effective dynamic when it gets heavy again, and it doesn’t hurt that vocalist Chad Gray can transition from throaty yells to soothing cleans in a matter of a second. Additionally, the band avoids an all too common mistake by taking careful precaution to tie all their ideas into each other instead of just throwing them all out there and bullshit
ting their way in between. All of these factors combine to make for a very powerful record.
To this day I am still disovering new intracies of
L.D. 50. The amount of creativity poured into this record keeps me coming back to it again and again, which isn’t something I can say about 95% of nu-metal or any of the music I listened to seven years ago. This album is without question the most diverse, intelligent, captivating and memorable nu-metal album I have ever heard. It is truly progressive in the sense of both style and ideas. It has minor flaws; “Pharmaecopia” only comes off as bland and repetitive in comparison with the other songs, and some of the interludes are unnecessarily long (see: “Recombinant Resurgence”). With how spectacular the bassist and drummer are, it’s a little surprising to note that the guitarist hardly does anything but power chords, even if the chord progression is unique. And finally, the vocals may be diverse for the genre, but they do feel outdated now because of how they sound. The flaws end there. Everything else about
L.D. 50 absolutely shines, and it’s an album that simply demands your listening if you’re certain that all nu-metal has faded away. Along with
White Pony,
L.D. 50 boasts the title of best nu-metal album of all time, and for good reason; it hasn’t gotten old in a genre that has.
