Mudvayne Lost And Found CD

Mudvayne: Chad Gray (vocals); Greg Tribbett (guitar); Ryan Martinie (bass guitar); Matt McDonough (drums).
It's been three years for Mudvayne, three years when metal started to reject its "rap" and "nu" prefixes. At first, Lost and Found reflects that realignment. Vocalist Chad Gray and his mates have nixed the nicknames and makeup for their third Epic full-length, and they try to focus on songs instead of heavy music shtick. However, they equate getting real with the melodramatic plead that interrupts the razor-sharp main part of "Choices," and Gray can't overcome lines like "IMN"'s "No one/No one could ever understand/This life." The song is about suicide, which is very serious. But yelling "F*ck this sh*t!" over thudding rhythms just isn't very powerful anymore. They nail it on opener "Determined" -- one of Mudvayne's all-time strongest tracks, it's a fist-swinging blast of modernized thrash. But Lost and Found soon falls into the familiar, busting no-one-understands-me lyrics and matching moments of refreshing rawness to stretches of stereotypical "corporate metal," a non-genre that's risen up to accept loud rock refugees and the harder side of post-grunge. The energy in "Determined" and "Just" is sapped by the meandering "TV Radio" and "Fall into Sleep," and ultimately Mudvayne gets lost between thrash and diluted Slipknot devotion. ~ Johnny Loftus
While some of its rap-metal contemporaries deserted the hip-hop half of the equation in favor of concentrating on death metal or neo-grunge, Mudvayne decided to keep the nu-metal torch burning with LOST AND FOUND. A veritable machine of complex rhythmic insanity that would make even Fishbone sit up and take notice, Mudvayne comes roaring out of the gate with a set that is as funky as it is heavy.
Drummer Matt McDonough and bassist Ryan Martinie play as if they are the same person, tossing off impossibly complex lock-step riffs ("Determined," "Just") like most bands hit an open E chord. On "Happy?" and "Fall into Sleep," singer Chad Gray moves from a throat-shredding rasp to sweet melodicism at the drop of a hat, taking angst-filled lyrics to new heights of dark obsession. Luckily, despite the inherent negativity of Gray's words, the seemingly boundless energy and impressive musicianship of LOST AND FOUND make for an uplifting listening experience.Entertainment Weekly (No. 817/818, p.147) - "[W]eaving crystallized melodies into their signature rage clusters, the metalheads dip a toe in clearer waters without losing any of the grime." - Grade: B+