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Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois, in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over five million records worldwide. The group consists of lead guitarist Greg Tribbett, drummer Matthew McDonough, lead vocalist Chad Gray, bassist Ryan Martinie and live rhythm guitarist Marcus Rafferty. The band became popular in the late-1990s Peoria underground music scene, and they found success with the single "Dig" from their debut album L.D. 50 (2000). After releasing four more albums and touring relentlessly for nearly a decade, Mudvayne went on hiatus in 2010. They reunited in 2021 and continue to perform live.
During the EP's recording, Barclay was replaced by Ryan Martinie, former bassist for the progressive rock band Broken Altar. After self-distributing Kill, I Oughtta, Mudvayne adopted and face paint. (2025). 9780634032875, Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9780634032875
Chuck Toler managed the band as they recorded their 2000 debut album L.D. 50. For the album, Mudvayne experimented with a ragged, dissonant sound; a sound collage, prepared for the album, was used as a series of interludes. L.D. 50 was produced by the band and Garth Richardson, with executive production by Slipknot member Shawn Crahan and Slipknot manager Steve Richards. (2025). 9780958268400, Zonda Books Limited. ISBN 9780958268400
L.D. 50 peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart and No. 85 on the Billboard 200. The singles "Dig" and "Death Blooms" peaked at No. 33 and No. 32 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Although the album was praised, some critics found the band hard to take seriously.
To promote L.D. 50, Mudvayne played on the Tattoo the Earth tour with Nothingface, Slayer, Slipknot and Sevendust. Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell became friends with Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray, and they explored the possibility of a supergroup. 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.Jon Wiederhorn, "Hellyeah: Night Riders", Revolver, March 2007, p. 60-64 ( link to Revolver back issues )
The album expanded on L.D. 50, with a wider range of riffs, tempos, moods and vocals. Because of this experimentation, Entertainment Weekly called this album more "user-friendly" than its predecessor and it was one of 2002's most acclaimed heavy-metal albums, it was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA in 2003. The music video for the single "Not Falling" demonstrated Mudvayne's change in appearance from L.D. 50, with the musicians transformed into veined creatures with white, egg-colored bug eyes. In 2003, Mudvayne participated in the Summer Sanitarium Tour, headlined by Metallica, and in September, Chad Gray appeared on V Shape Mind's debut studio album Cul-De-Sac.
In January 2004, the band began work on its third album, produced by Dave Fortman. 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. In February, Gray and Martinie expressed an interest in appearing on Within The Mind – In Homage to the Musical Legacy of Chuck Schuldiner, a tribute to the founder of the metal band Death, but the album was never produced.
In 2005, Chad Gray established independent record label Bullygoat Records and Bloodsimple's debut album, A Cruel World (with a guest appearance by Gray), appeared in March. On April 12, Mudvayne released Lost and Found. The album's first single, "Happy?", featured complex guitar work and Gray described "Choices" as "the eight-minute opus".
In August, former Mudvayne bassist Shawn Barclay released his band Sprung's debut album, mastered by King's X guitarist Ty Tabor. That month, rumors spread that Bullygoat Records would release We Pay Our Debt Sometimes: A Tribute to Alice 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.
In September, the band met with director Darren Lynn Bousman, whose film Saw II was in production and would include "Forget to Remember" from Lost 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 and Saw II was based on a screenplay he wrote years earlier. Gray appeared briefly in the film, and the music video for "Forget to Remember" contained clips from Saw II.
After Gray and Tribbett returned from touring with Hellyeah, Mudvayne began recording The New Game with Dave Fortman. After the album's 2008 release, Fortman told MTV that it would be followed in six months by another full-length record.
For its self-titled fifth album, Mudvayne hoped to create a "white album", describing its cover art. The album, printed with blacklight paint, was only visible under a black light (a light whose wavelength is primarily ultraviolet). Mudvayne was recorded in the summer of 2008 and released in 2009.
Mudvayne's influences include Tool, Pantera, King Crimson, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Carcass, Deicide, Emperor, Miles Davis, Black Sabbath, Rush, Metallica, Slayer, Korn, and Deftones. Mudvayne have repeatedly expressed admiration for Stanley Kubrick's , and were influenced by the film during the recording of L.D. 50.
Although Mudvayne has described its style as "math rock" and "math metal", drummer Matthew 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 an abacus in writing. It seems I should be careful making jokes in interviews. I don't really see Mudvayne as an innovator in anything." Music critics and journalists have categorized the band as alternative metal, nu metal, experimental metal, extreme metal, hard rock, heavy metal, math metal, groove metal, neo-progressive metal, neo-progressive rock, progressive rock, and progressive metal. Eli Enis of Revolver 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."
|- | 2001 || "Dig" || MTV2 Award ||
Grammy Awards
|- | 2006 || "Determined" || Best Metal Performance ||
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