(RockAndMetal.com) (03/29/04)

By Michael Bennett

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA - After opening for Metallica on last year's "Summer Sanitarium" tour, MUDVAYNE spent the holidays recuperating before starting work on the quartet's third, as-yet-untitled, Epic Records release.

Scheduled for this fall, the upcoming album follows the success of Mudvayne's first two albums -- "L.D. 50" and "The End Of All Things To Come" -- both of which were certified gold.

Singer Chad Gray, guitarist Greg Tribbett, bassist Ryan Martinie, and drummer Matt McDonough recently rented a ranch in northern California and converted its multi-stall garage into a makeshift studio where they are working on new music.

Despite the relaxing backdrop, the band is pushing itself hard and has already written half of the music for the album.

Establishing clear goals for each song has been the key to Mudvayne's quick results, McDonough says.

"It's a strange contradiction, but it can be very liberating to set limitations on creativity as long as you don't let those limitations define you," he explains.

"It frees up a lot of creative energy when you stop pulling an idea in fifty different directions and start pushing it in one."

It only took Gray a few days to finish lyrics for the first song -- a track that encapsulates the undisclosed meaning behind the album.

"I spent my time off thinking about the themes we wanted to explore on this album," he says.

"When I got to California, that first song just came pouring out of me. It really is an overview of what the album is about."

While the band is characteristically mysterious about the ideas behind the new album, McDonough says the music will reflect a refinement of Mudvayne's complexly structured music balanced against more melody than any previous album.

Martinie adds: "Our goal for the third album is to make music that pleases us because if it makes us happy, then the rest will take care of itself."

Being name-dropped on this week's episode of "The Sopranos" was also an unexpected plot twist in the band's evolution.

The episode, which premiered Sunday, featured A.J. Soprano (played by actor Robert Iler), going to a Mudvayne concert at The Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.

"We heard that Robert likes Mudvayne, and is the one responsible for bringing us into the show. It was really cool of him to do that," says Tribbett, who is a fan of The Sopranos.

"I was watching the episode and couldn't believe it when I saw Robert walking out of the Hammerstein Ballroom past a bunch of Mudvayne posters."

"It was like a pop culture stamp of approval on the band."

"What is especially gratifying for Mudvayne," McDonough says, "is that the band was not looking for recognition.

We've been asked to be on television shows before but we've always said no because we don't want to debase our music by making a spectacle of the band," he explains.

"It's much more satisfying to creep into public consciousness this way - on our own terms."

"But don't expect Mudvayne to go Hollywood any time soon," Gray assures. "The glitz and glamour is the exact opposite of what we're about," he says.

"We went to the premiere of "Ghost Ship" a couple of years ago because our song 'Not Falling' was in the movie.

It was a surreal, out-of-body experience standing on the red carpet talking to people like Paula Abdul and Entertainment Tonight."

In addition to a recent tribute album to the band, Mudvayne's music was also the subject of "In the Chamber With Mudvayne."

The album features a string quartet interpreting the band's catalog including 'Dig' and 'Death Blooms' from "L.D. 50" (2000); 'Some Assembly Required' from "The Beginning Of All Things To End" (2001) as well as 'Silenced,' 'Not Falling' and 'Trapped In The Wake Of A Dream' from "The End Of All Things To Come" (2002).

"Hearing Mudvayne's heavy riffing take a classical turn was flattering," Martinie says.

The band agrees that 'World So Cold' is the album's best track. "The way the musicians interpret Chad's vocalizations is pretty interesting," he says.

"When it comes to people covering our music I'm a stickler for accuracy, but I thought these musicians did a great job."

"Our music isn't easy to recreate, and you can tell they did their homework."

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