A name foreign to most, Mudvayne has been rocking the modern world for over 10 years, a surprisingly long life span for any group in today's fickle music scene. The group's latest release, entitled "The New Game," is another move toward the more melodic, classically rock 'n' roll styles that the band grew up listening to.
The first single from the album, "Do What You Do," starts off as a mushy acoustic track but soon explodes into the rhythmically punctuated chorus that fans of the group will be quite familiar with. While the lyrics are rather angry and sadistic, as usual, the writing is surprisingly advanced for a metal group, with lead singer Chad Gray claiming that he's "stuck between a rock and nowhere." In hindsight, some of the lyrics don't make much sense, but they sure sound cool in the context of the song.
Even though the melody of the choruses propels the song forward, the group seems incredibly reticent to leave behind the muddied power-chord riffs that brought them their initial renown. After the second chorus disintegrates into a sloppy overdriven solo from guitarist Greg Tribbett, it becomes apparent that Mudvayne isn't reaching for any new heights with the song, or the album at large, but rather getting back to basics regarding song format and style.
The title track follows "Do What You Do," and it quickly finds itself unwelcome in the listeners' ears. For lack of better terms, "New Game" shows little to no growth on behalf of the group. The boring-as-sin double-bass-drum pattern that percussionist Matt McDonough keeps going for the entirety of the song drives the point home that there is nothing new or ingenuous in the track ... at all. The guitar riff sounds as if a novice musician has put his guitar in the lowest possible tuning and then simply picked two notes to bounce between at his leisure.
The Mudvayne of old -- that is, the group that put out 2002's "The End of All Things to Come" -- would have at least inserted an interesting polyrhythm into such a track, but this time finds itself content to just sit back and take the easy way out.
Bassist Ryan Martinie at least attempts to spice up the band's sound, but even his supernatural bass skills can't do enough to save an album that is clearly satisfied with mediocrity.
One of the tracks lost in the middle of the album, conventionally titled "The Hate in Me," sees the most musical skill on the album.
The main riff of the song is, at least, in a different time signature, though it's nothing too difficult, and the bass line, which is sadly mixed into the background, keeps the tune somewhat interesting.
A group of acoustically oriented tracks litter the album, but none of them are unique enough or catchy enough to warrant a second listen.
There is some good news about the arrival of "New Game," though it's hardly anything that overshadows the bad: Mudvayne has discovered that music can be both soft and hard.
The only issue the band needs to resolve is how to make the transition between the two styles without repeatedly using the acoustic-verse-electric-chorus format that is ubiquitous on the album.
Because the band has made some high-quality music in the past, "The New Game" is a swing and a miss, but not a strikeout.
That said, if the band learns nothing from this outing, it will find itself bench-warming in no time.
