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MUDVAYNE : "THE END OF ALL THINGS TO COME"
Reviewed by ZAC BORROWS
The second full length album from the Ilinois four piece came to light recently in the form of The End of All Things To Come. A very refined sounding album, this is probably their best work to date.
Opening with the uncompromising Silenced, a track levelled at music censors, the album progresses through all of their extensive musical skills, involving elements of funkmetal and even rap. Through the extremely talented five string stylings of RU D, formerly known as Rynow, Mudvayne have developed a huge following and an unmistakable sound which sets them apart from any other metal band in the current scene.
Despite being part of a genre considered by many to be unintelligible music, Mudvayne are a very melodious group, quite often using triple layered vocals. One would only need to listen to the track World So Cold to understand what I mean. ChUd's vocals sound so smooth over the top of the more mellow sounds and yet change in a split second to a raw, yet polished sounding scream to accommodate the heavier parts of the song.
I do not want to detract from an otherwise outstanding album, but nearer the end, the album does tend to trail off a bit. Up until Shadow Of A Man, the tenth song, the album flows beautifully. Each and every song leads into the one after it, just like the LD 50 album. Following this the obscure eleventh track - seemingly, nine seconds of silence - acts as a break. The tracks afterwards seem to be just tacked on, as if separate from the rest of the album. This is not to say that they are not good songs - the title track is an epic, building up from a slow start to a crescendo of guitars and drums - they just seem a little withdrawn.
I describe Tool as the Pink Floyd of modern rock, with their arty type rhythms and floating vocals. Mudvayne is the next step up from that. Mudvayne is the Pink Floyd of modern metal for the same reasons. The smooth sounding vocals and the harmonic vocals sound fantastic. I only wish I had a better stereo.