Mudvayne | |
|---|---|
 Mudvayne performing at theAftershock Festival in 2021. Left to right:Ryan Martinie,Chad Gray,Matthew McDonough,Greg Tribbett | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Peoria, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Works | Mudvayne discography |
| Years active |
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| Labels | |
| Spinoffs | |
| Members | |
| Website | mudvayneofficial |
Mudvayne is an Americanheavy metal band formed inPeoria,Illinois, in 1996.[2] Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over five million records worldwide.[3] The group consists of lead guitaristGreg Tribbett, drummerMatthew McDonough, lead vocalistChad Gray, bassistRyan Martinie and live rhythm guitarist Marcus Rafferty. The band became popular in the late-1990s Peoriaunderground music scene,[4] and they found success with the single "Dig" from their debut albumL.D. 50 (2000). After releasing four more albums and touring for nearly a decade, Mudvayne went on hiatus in 2010. They reunited in 2021, continuing to perform live,[5][6] and on August 28, 2025 released their first new song in sixteen years titled "Hurt People Hurt People".
Mudvayne, formed in 1996 in Peoria, Illinois, originally consisted of guitaristGreg Tribbett, drummerMatthew McDonough and bassist Shawn Barclay.[7] The band's lineup was finalized a matter of months later whenChad Gray, who was earning $40,000 a year in a factory, quit his day job to become its lead singer.[8] In 1997, Mudvayne financed its debut EP,Kill, I Oughtta.[9][7]
During the EP's recording, Barclay was replaced byRyan Martinie, former bassist for the progressive rock band Broken Altar.[10] After self-distributingKill, I Oughtta,[9][7] Mudvayne adoptedstage names andface paint.[7][11][12]
Chuck Toler managed the band as they recorded their 2000 debut albumL.D. 50.[12][13] For the album, Mudvayne experimented with a ragged, dissonant sound; asound collage, prepared for the album, was used as a series of interludes.[7][14]L.D. 50 was produced by the band andGarth Richardson,[15] with executive production bySlipknot memberShawn Crahan and Slipknot manager Steve Richards.[7][13]
L.D. 50 peaked at No. 1 on theBillboard Top Heatseekers chart and No. 85 on theBillboard 200.[16] The singles "Dig" and "Death Blooms" peaked at No. 33 and No. 32 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[16] Although the album was praised,[17] some critics found the band hard to take seriously.[18]
To promoteL.D. 50, Mudvayne played on theTattoo the Earth tour withNothingface,Slayer,Slipknot andSevendust. Nothingface guitaristTom Maxwell became friends with Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray, and they explored the possibility of asupergroup. The following year, Nothingface again toured with Mudvayne; although plans for a supergroup continued, they were put on hold due to scheduling conflicts. Gray and Maxwell had discussed five names for the group, and Mudvayne guitarist Greg Tribbett approached Maxwell "out of the blue" to join it. Although Nothingface drummer Tommy Sickles played on the group's demo, the search for another drummer began.[19]
In 2002, Mudvayne releasedThe End of All Things to Come, which the band considers its "black album" due to its largely-black artwork.[20]Isolation inspired the album's songs. During its mixing, Gray and McDonough stopped atBob's Big Boy and Gray remembered overhearing someone "say something like, ' ... and he's got to cut his own eye out'". When he asked McDonough if he heard the conversation McDonough said he hadn't, and Gray thought it was someone discussing a scene from a screenplay.[21]
The album expanded onL.D. 50, with a wider range of riffs, tempos, moods and vocals.[22] Because of this experimentation,Entertainment Weekly called this album more "user-friendly" than its predecessor[23] and it was one of 2002's most acclaimed heavy-metal albums, it was eventually certified Gold by theRIAA in 2003.[24] The music video for the single "Not Falling" demonstrated Mudvayne's change in appearance fromL.D. 50, with the musicians transformed into veined creatures with white, egg-colored bug eyes.[25] In 2003, Mudvayne participated in theSummer Sanitarium Tour, headlined byMetallica,[26] and in September, Chad Gray appeared onV Shape Mind's debut studio albumCul-De-Sac.[27]
In January 2004, the band began work on its third album, produced byDave Fortman.[26][28] As for the previous album, Mudvayne withdrew to write songs; they moved into a house, writing the album in four months before recording began after the Summer Sanitarium tour ended.[26][29] In February, Gray and Martinie expressed an interest in appearing onWithin The Mind – In Homage to the Musical Legacy ofChuck Schuldiner, a tribute to the founder of the metal bandDeath,[30] but the album was never produced.
In 2005, Chad Gray established independent record label Bullygoat Records andBloodsimple's debut album,A Cruel World (with a guest appearance by Gray), appeared in March.[31] On April 12, Mudvayne releasedLost and Found. The album's first single, "Happy?", featured complex guitar work and Gray described "Choices" as "the eight-minute opus".[26]
In August, former Mudvayne bassist Shawn Barclay released his band Sprung's debut album, mastered byKing's X guitaristTy Tabor.[9] That month, rumors spread that Bullygoat Records would releaseWe Pay Our Debt Sometimes: A Tribute toAlice in Chains, with performances by Mudvayne,Cold,Audioslave,Breaking Benjamin,Static-X and the surviving members of Alice in Chains. A spokesperson for Alice in Chains told the press that the band was unaware of any tribute album, and Mudvayne's manager said that reports of the album were only rumors.[32]
In September, the band met with directorDarren Lynn Bousman, whose filmSaw II was in production and would include "Forget to Remember" fromLost and Found. Bousman showed them a scene of a man cutting his eye out of his skull to retrieve a key. When Gray told Bousman about the conversation at Bob's Big Boy two years earlier, Bousman said he holds his production meetings at the restaurant andSaw II was based on a screenplay he wrote years earlier.[21] Gray appeared briefly in the film, and the music video for "Forget to Remember" contained clips fromSaw II.[21]
In 2006, Gray, Tribbett and Tom Maxwell were joined by formerPantera andDamageplan drummerVinnie Paul for the supergroupHellyeah. On March 8, when Mudvayne andKorn performed at theKBPI Birthday Bash inDenver,Thornton waitress Nicole LaScalia was injured during Mudvayne's set.[33] Two years later, LaScalia filed a lawsuit against radio station owner Clear Channel Broadcasting, concert promoter Live Nation, the University of Denver and members of Mudvayne and Korn.[33] During the summer, Gray, Tribbett, Maxwell and Paul recordedan album as Hellyeah.[34] After a tour withSevendust, Mudvayne released the 2007 retrospectiveBy the People, for the People (compiled from selections chosen by fans on the band's website).[35] The album debuted at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling about 22,000 copies in its first week.[21][36]
After Gray and Tribbett returned from touring with Hellyeah, Mudvayne began recordingThe New Game with Dave Fortman.[37] After the album's 2008 release, Fortman toldMTV that it would be followed in six months by another full-length record.[38]
For itsself-titled fifth album, Mudvayne hoped to create a "white album", describing its cover art.[20] The album, printed withblacklight paint, was only visible under ablack light (a light whose wavelength is primarilyultraviolet).[39]Mudvayne was recorded in the summer of 2008[40] and released in 2009.
In 2010, Mudvayne again paused to allow Gray and Tribbett to tour withHellyeah, and, because of the supergroup's album releases, the band would be on hiatus until at least 2014.[41] With Hellyeah, Tribbett has recorded three albums:Hellyeah,Stampede andBand of Brothers.[42] Gray has contributed to an additional fourth, fifth and sixth albums,Blood for Blood,Unden!able andWelcome Home.[43] In 2012, Ryan Martinie toured with Korn as a temporary replacement for bassistReginald Arvizu, who remained at home during his wife's pregnancy.[44] The following year, Martinie played bass on Kurai's debut EP,Breaking the Broken,[45] In 2014, Tribbett left Hellyeah.[46]
On April 19, 2021, Mudvayne announced that they had reunited and would play their first shows in 12 years in the fall, which included festival appearances at Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo inMansfield,Aftershock inSacramento andWelcome to Rockville inFlorida; concert promoter and festival organizerDanny Wimmer stated that these would be the band's only live appearances for 2021. The band were previously scheduled to also appear atLouder Than Life inLouisville, before the performance was canceled on September 21 due to Gray and some staff members contractingCOVID-19.[5][47] The members of Mudvayne have reportedly discussed the possibility of new material.[48] The band's reunion resumed in the summer of 2022 with appearances at Upheaval Festival inGrand Rapids andRock Fest inCadott,[6][49] followed by their first US tour in 13 years, which saw Mudvayne co-headline the Freaks on Parade tour withRob Zombie.[50] The tour's stop inTampa made headlines when during one show, Gray fell off the stage while performing the song "Not Falling".[51] Gray himself noted the irony, and joked it was "amazing"[52] and "unbelievable".[53]
The band released "Hurt People Hurt People", their first song since their reunion on Aug 27, 2025.[54][55]
Mudvayne is noted for its musical complexity,[56][57] complex meters andpolyrhythms.[58] The band's music contains what McDonough calls "number symbolism", where certainriffs correspond to lyrical themes.[12] Mudvayne has incorporated elements ofdeath metal,[12][22]jazz,[59]jazz fusion,[22][60]progressive rock,[12][22][59][61][62]speed metal,[12]thrash metal[59] andworld music.[18][63]
Mudvayne's influences includeTool,Pantera,King Crimson,Genesis,Emerson, Lake & Palmer,Carcass,Deicide,Emperor,Miles Davis,Black Sabbath,Rush,[64][65]Metallica,Slayer,Korn, andDeftones.[66] Mudvayne have repeatedly expressed admiration forStanley Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey, and were influenced by the film during the recording ofL.D. 50.[67]
Although Mudvayne has described its style as "math rock"[68] and "math metal",[63][69][70] drummerMatthew McDonough said in 2009: "I honestly don't know what 'math metal' is. I made a joke early on in Mudvayne's career that we used anabacus in writing. It seems I should be careful making jokes in interviews. I don't really see Mudvayne as an innovator in anything."[71] Music critics and journalists have categorized the band asalternative metal,[72][73][74][75]nu metal,[76][77][78][79]experimental metal,[75]extreme metal,[75][80]hard rock,[81][82][83][84][85]heavy metal,[33][69][86] math metal,[70][75]groove metal,[87][88] neo-progressive metal,[75]neo-progressive rock,[89]progressive rock,[12][61][62] andprogressive metal.[61][70][75][90] Eli Enis ofRevolver magazine wrote that the band "wriggled between nu-metal, alt-metal, prog and hard rock in a way that remains completely unrivaled to this day. No one else has or ever will sound quite like them."[91]
Although Mudvayne was known for its appearance, Gray described its aesthetic as "music first, visuals second".[26] WhenL.D. 50 was released, the band performed inhorror film-style makeup.[13] Epic Records initially promoted Mudvayne without focusing on its members; early promotional materials featured a logo instead of photos of the band, but its appearance and music videos publicizedL.D. 50.[13] The members of Mudvayne were originally known by the stage names Kud, sPaG, Ryknow and Gurrg.[7] At the2001 MTV Video Music Awards (where they won theMTV2 Award for "Dig"), the band appeared in white suits with bloody bullet-hole makeup on their foreheads.[92] After 2002, Mudvayne changed makeup styles (from multicolored face paint toextraterrestrials) for promotional photos and changed their stage names to Chüd, Güüg, Rü-D, and Spüg,[93] though they would continue to perform in the horror-style makeup live. According to the band, the extravagant makeup added a visual aspect to their music and set them apart from other metal bands.[94] From 2003 up until their dissolution, Mudvayne largely abandoned the use of makeup to avoid image comparisons with the bandSlipknot.[26] With their 2021 reunion, they began wearing makeup again when performing live.[95][96]
Current members
Touring musicians
Former members
Studio albums
MTV Video Music Awards
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | "Dig" | MTV2 Award | Won |
Grammy Awards
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Determined" | Best Metal Performance | Nominated |
Mudvayne's "The End of All Things to Come" was one of last year's most acclaimed metal releases
Nicole LaScalia was knocked to the floor of Magness Arena and trampled by concertgoers moments after the heavy metal band Mudvayne took the stage.
We had time, and there wasn't anything going on last summer, so we went in, and recorded it.
Mudvayne, the Grammy-nominated progressive rock and metal band, is helping keep rock on a roll in Rochester.[permanent dead link]
The Peoria, Illinois, progressive metal quartet has named their new album The End of All Things To Come
Well-calculated alterna-metal band Mudvayne makes a whole bunch of money at Rams Head Live with 10 Years and a band called Snot.
...Mudvayne has been added to an ever growing list of metals: experimental metal, alternative metal, extreme metal, progressive metal, neo-progressive metal and the impressive pocket protector favorite, math metal.
extreme metal quartet Mudvayne
And fans will witness Mudvayne trying to remake itself from a costume-wearing shock-rock act into a just plain menacing hard-rock act.
Metallica, the elder statesmen of metal, assembled an untouchable lineup of metal acts to join them on a tour that reads like a who's who of heavy-metal heavyweights: Mudvayne and the Deftones, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit.
The music, too, has a lot of Mudvayne's combination of groove and progressive epic-ness ...
You know Trapt aren't vying for the affections of neo-prog Mudvayne fanatics when their singer, Chris Brown, feels Genesis got good only after Phil Collins took the mic.
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