Mudvayne (album)

Mudvayne
Cover art when seen under a black light.
Studio album by Mudvayne
Released	December 21, 2009
Recorded	2007–2009
Genre	Heavy metal
Label	Epic
Producer	Dave Fortman Jeremy Parker
Mudvayne chronology
The New Game (2008) Mudvayne (2009)
Singles from Mudvayne
"Scream With Me" Released: November 17, 2009

Mudvayne is the fifth studio album by heavy metal band Mudvayne. It was released on December 21, 2009. It was produced by Jeremy Parker, the material from the album was recorded simultaneously with the material that appeared on The New Game. "Beautiful And Strange", a single from the band, was made available for streaming on the band's website and MySpace page on October 7, 2009.

Release

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	53/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Fangoria	[3]
Consequence of Sound	[4]
Thrash Magazine	[5]
411mania	[6]
Spin Magazine	[7]
Los Angeles Times	[8]

On October 7, Mudvayne revealed a new song, "Beautiful and Strange". The song creates a mix of styles used in The New Game and older albums as well. It was also revealed that the first single from the album, "Scream With Me", will begin receiving airplay on November 17, 2009. However, a week before, it premiered on Noise Creep at 12:01 AM. Another song, "Heard it all Before" was made available for streaming. On November 10, iTunes released a 3 song set from the new album, titled Mudvayne - EP with the songs "Beautiful and Strange", "Scream With Me", and "Heard it All Before". A digital download of the full album was released on December 7, 2009 to those who pre-ordered the album.

The album was released through Epic Records on December 18, 2009 in Germany and three days later in North America. The album art for Mudvayne was printed entirely in blacklight-reactive ink, including the cover and liner notes, that can only be seen when under a black light. The cover art design was created by tattoo artist Paul Booth. Booth commented on the art: "This project has been absolutely killer to work on! The whole black light concept was totally experimental and quite the challenge, so of course, as an artist, I was drawn to it like a moth to a bugzapper. I am happy to see bands focusing more energy on their album art... something I thought the Internet had killed.^[9] Mudvayne considers their second studio album, The End of All Things to Come, to be the band's "black album". For the release of their self-titled album, the band hoped to create their "white album", which would be reflected through the cover art. Without a blacklight present, the entire album packaging appears to be blank white paper.^[10]

There are different release editions of Mudvayne available; a standard edition, vinyl edition, deluxe and super deluxe edition. All release editions feature blacklight-reactive ink, and the super deluxe edition is only available through Mudvayne's online store.^[9]

Features	Release edition
	Standard	Vinyl	Deluxe	Super Deluxe
Blacklight-reactive artwork	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Special blacklight-reactive packaging	No	No	Yes	Yes
Album on CD	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Album on glow-in-the-dark vinyl	No	Yes	No	Yes
LED, keychain-sized blacklight	No	No	Yes	Yes
24-inch blacklight	No	No	No	Yes
A blacklight-reactive sticker and poster	No	No	No	Yes
Quantity	N/A	N/A	100,000	1,000

The album debuted at No. 54 on the Billboard 200. However, the next week it peaked at No. 53.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Beautiful and Strange"	5:03
2.	"1000 Mile Journey"	5:56
3.	"Scream with Me"	2:52
4.	"Closer"	3:21
5.	"Heard It All Before"	6:05
6.	"I Can't Wait"	3:03
7.	"Beyond the Pale"	4:47
8.	"All Talk"	2:52
9.	"Out to Pasture"	5:47
10.	"Burn the Bridge"	3:36
11.	"Dead Inside"	4:55
Total length:		48:17

Personnel

Mudvayne

• Chad Gray − vocals
• Greg Tribbett − guitars
• Ryan Martinie − bass
• Matthew McDonough − drums

Production and art

• Jeremy Parker − production
• Paul Booth − art direction and design

References

1. ^ "Mudvayne". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/mudvayne. 
2. ^ "Allmusic review". http://www.allmusic.com/album/r1691673. 
3. ^ "Fangoria review". http://fangoria.com/musick/reviews/4633-mudvayne-mudvayne-musick-review.html. 
4. ^ "Consequence of Sound review". http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/01/10/album-review-mudvayne-mudvayne/. 
5. ^ "Thrash Magazine review". http://www.thrashmag.com/reviews/content.aspx?id=7266. 
6. ^ "411mania review". http://www.411mania.com/music/album_reviews/125010/Mudvayne---Mudvayne-Review.htm. 
7. ^ "Spin Magazine review". http://www.spin.com/reviews/mudvayne-mudvayne-epic. 
8. ^ "Los Angeles Times review". http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/12/album-review-mudvayne.html. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Exclusive: New MUDVAYNE Album Artwork Unveiled". Blabbermouth.net. November 6, 2009. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/BLABBERMOUTH.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=129970. Retrieved November 6, 2009. 
10. ^ "MUDVAYNE Frontman Sees The (Black) Light". Blabbermouth.net. November 13, 2009. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/BLABBERMOUTH.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=130358. Retrieved November 14, 2009.