Mudvayne

• Genre: Alt Metal
• Hometown: Peoria
• Mudvayne Website

About

Formed in Illinois in 1996, Mudvayne have risen as one of the top players in the nu-metal scene. Drawing many Slipknot comparisons, Mudvayne too wear crazy costumes onstage, but instead of masks, they wear frightening makeup for a chaotic appearance that goes well with their frenzied brand of metal. Banking time signatures, radical shifts in tempo, and vocals that go from semi-rapping to death-metal gurgling to unhinged screaming and even to clean singing (on later albums) are the hallmarks of Mudvayne's music. Their major label debut, L.D. 50, yielded the hit "Dig" in 2000; one year later they released the concept album The Beginning of All Things to End, which further cemented their place in the minds of America's angry teenagers. On 2005's Lost and Found Mudvayne dropped the facade, emerging in plain clothes without makeup on their most personal record to date. With four R.I.A.A.-certified gold albums, Mudvayne continue to write new records and deliver for their fans, whom they let choose the track listing of 2007's B-sides and rarities compilation By the People, For the People.

- Jen Guyre