Album Review: Lost and Found

In their 2005 album that’s for the most part very radio-unfriendly, Mudvayne utilizes blasting guitar and drum beats to create a blend of heavy and nu metal sounds.

As someone who’s really only waded into shallow water in the world of metal, I would immediately recommend this album to a rock fan looking to expand their horizons into heavier territory. Mudvayne’s “Lost and Found” is somewhat Slipknot-sounding by nature: after all, there’s a male vocalist screaming lyrics over technical guitar and drum parts and the occasional (perhaps less often than Slipknot) section of clean vocals. As a matter of fact, the members of Mudvayne eventually stopped wearing the elaborate horror makeup that they debuted with in order to avoid being compared to Slipknot. Oops, I’m doing it anyway.

For me, the most distinctive tracks from “Lost and Found” are the opener, Determined, which wastes no time getting into driving riffs, several instances of a specific f-word that’s not allowed on the radio during daylight hours, and the kinds of screams that can only be written out as “REEAAGGH!,” and Choices, an 8 minute long track in the middle of the album. Choices is less vulgar than Determined but more off-putting due to a strange chorus of tiny voices repeating “eeny meeny miney moe” at intervals throughout the first part of the song. I’m almost tempted to call it campy. But the droning hook of the song, “we don’t have a choice anymore, anyway,” carried me through the 8 minutes and left a lasting impression on me that cemented Choices as my other pick for best songs from the album.

Others may disagree; in fact I guarantee they do, because Happy?, another track from “Lost and Found,” is Mudvayne’s most popular song on Spotify, and Forget to Remember is a song from the movie Saw II. II each their own! (groan)