Review Summary: When you need a concentrated dose of rage, this is the album.
L.D. 50 is one of the angriest and most hate filled albums I have ever listened to. Every track contains a healthy dose of rage and hatred in varying quantities. But Mudvayne does a great job at avoiding monotony, while simultaneously delivery some incredibly rage inducing metal.
The album's opener, Monolith, is an interlude of sorts. It features fuzzy music and a monologue about human evolution, as well as what sounds like a growling beast coming in and out of focus. It's creepy and bizarre, yet it helps draw us into the album. It then bleeds into Dig. How does one describe the listening experience of Dig? It hits you like a point blank RPG blast to the gut. It is a purely unfiltered yet completely focused outpouring of vitriolic rage. Yet rage doesn't do this song justice; it's so extreme and intense it's hard to take in, yet never becomes off putting or incomprehensible. This is due mostly to Chad Gray's vocal delivery. On Dig it's a constant guttural scream that never dissolves into noisy shrieking. This keeps the listener engaged even while they're being assaulted by a steady blast of hatred.
Dig sets the tone for the album, but the rest of the songs all have their own unique sound. Many, such as Cradle, have more of a progressive sound. They will go from having more mellow rock and almost spoken vocals, to intense metal and angered, shouted vocals. The diversity adds flavor and keeps the album interesting so that the listener rarely feels like they are hearing the same thing over and over again. But the underlying anger never lets up and is expressed in every track, albeit in different ways.
This makes Mudvayne's sound difficult to categorize. They effectively mix hard rock, nu and progressive metal and elements of industrial rock. This helps make
L.D. 50 an enjoyable and adrenaline pumping experience. It's not for the faint of heart, but if you're ever extremely pissed off and need an album to add fuel to your fire, put this one on and let the rage wash over you.
