Album Preview: Mudvayne Reinvents Itself, Says Nu-Metal Will Be Back

When Mudvayne releases its fourth studio album The New Game in November, the record will be new to fans but a year and a half old for the band. Having the tour for its previous record and with vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett joining forces with Pantera's Vinnie Paul in Hellyeah, the band opted to sit on the album as opposed to rushing it out to the market– a good choice, considering the set's shift towards bigger choruses and more accessible melodies.

"There's a bit of pop mentality to the way we like to write together, and maybe we've gravitated towards that over the years," bassist Ryan Martinie tells Rock Daily. "There's friendlier songs, where we're not alienating the listener. Maybe we didn't want to alienate ourselves either." When the band decided the time wasn't right to release The New Game, they reconvened and cranked out another batch of songs – a whole new album's worth. While those songs won't make it into the live show yet, the next record could see the light of day as early as spring 2009.

As one of the last bands standing from the nu-metal pack at the turn of the millennium, the band survived by not overplaying its initially cartoonish visual component and discouraging members to grow dreadlocks. Martinie isn't sure why some bands failed and others can still release platinum albums, but warns about one of the least-likely nostalgia movements in music. "You have a band like Disturbed that's still around and writing great music," he said. "The 'nu-metal' genre was the uncool thing to listen to for a while, and I think it will come back around. People will say, 'I forget that I loved that song so much.' People will come back to it, maybe like they do with Eighties songs or bad Nineties pop."

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Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

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