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Mudvayne-The End of All Things to Come Review By Shawn McKenzie 01/08/2003 When I do a review, I really try to separate my personal feeling for a band from my opinion of their music. I say this only because I recently went to one of Mudvayne’s concerts, and they really ticked me off. The first thing that made me mad was the fact that they were slamming capitalism while singing in front of a big poser “M.” If they really didn’t care about making money, why would they bother to put on such a production? None of their opening acts did. The second thing that made me mad was his encouragement of the crowd that someone should take a gun and shoot the President. What? Why? I believe in free speech, even stupid hate speech, but why do these losers feel the need to say these things? Do they really believe them, or are they just putting on a show? With all of their silly names and makeup, they must be trying to overcompensate.
That said, I will now tell you about their latest album, The End of All Things to Come. As I do with most metal albums, I usually ignore the lyrical content and focus on how much it rocks. I honestly don’t listen to metal to examine the state of the world, just to rock. Fortunately, this album does rock. I was a little concerned when I first heard the first single, “Not Falling,” because it is a little weaker than the singles off of the band’s first album, 2000’s L.D. 50, which consisted of “Dig” and “Death Blooms.” Both of those songs were harder than anything else you might hear on rock radio, and the main reason I bought that album. “Not Falling” possibly the weakest song on the album (even though it does have a really cool guitar riff.)
The album starts off with the blistering “Silenced” and beats you hard with the metal from there. Like “Not Falling,” the second track, “Trapped in the Wake of a Dream” does that annoying screaming/singing thing (you know…where he will scream bloody murder at one point, and then switch to singing melodically), but not as bad. They do this on a few other tracks, but it flows a little better than it does on the single.
One thing I like about The End of All Things to Come is that it didn’t have those irritating trippy bits of space noises in between tracks like L.D. 50 did. This album just gives you the songs. Thank you Mudvayne.
There is some information I think you should know so you get the full scope of the album and the band. The lead singer was named Kud on the first album, and now he is named Chüd. The guitarist Gurrg has become Güüg, bassist Ryknow is R-üD, and drummer sPaG is Spüg. They won the first ever MTV2 Video Award in 2001 for their “Dig” video, which they accepted in makeup that made them look like they had been shot in the head. I guess the point I am making is that you have to take this band with a grain of salt (or a handful, since that is what this band is.)
Some versions of the album come with a bonus DVD (isn’t that usually included on albums to encourage sales? I thought they didn’t care about money!) It consists of footage in the studio of them recording tracks for the album, a photo shoot for a music video (which for some odd reason isn’t also included on the DVD…unless I just couldn’t find it), footage of the band just goofing off, and a conversation between two band members about the album over dinner. It also includes two previously unreleased tracks (which are audio only.) The first one, “Goodbye,” is even weaker than “Not Falling.” In fact, it is the weakest song I’ve heard them do period. It can be heard in the background of the photo shoot segment (is that the song they are doing the video for?) The second song, “On the Move,” redeems their hard status.
I did like The End of All Things to Come, despite my personal feeling for the band. Actually, I liked it even better than their first album (which shows their growth, at least musically), but I hope that someday the band will actually listen to some of the stupid things they say on stage and think before they do more of their poser act. I may not be so forgiving next time.
Buy these albums at
Ratings System:
BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!
Buy this album when you get the money...
Burn a copy of your friend's album...
Listen to your friend's album at his/her house...
Throw away your friend's album or use it as a coaster! |
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