The New Game (Deluxe Version)

Album Review

After toning down the Slipknot/Mushroomhead theatrics for 2005's Lost and Found, Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray recorded an album with modern metal (almost) "supergroup" Hellyeah. The latter outfit's predilection for basic, rib-cracking hard rock pops up occasionally throughout 2008's The New Game like a gin blossom, interrupting sonic blasts of math-tinged nu metal with furious Motörhead-meets-Alice in Chains mayhem. The problem is, Mudvayne's own predilection for predictable loud/soft/loud set pieces, forgettable melodies, and over-reliance on words like "sorrow," "rage," "abused," "disease," "nightmares," and "beatings" keeps things from ever leaving the tarmac. With a winning opener (the familiar but nonetheless brutal "Fish Out of Water") and a handful of other keepers (including "A New Game" and the surprisingly subtle "Never Enough"), fans looking for a repeat of L.D. 50, Beginning of All Things to End, End of All Things to Come, and Lost and Found will be more than pleased, but those looking for actual growth would be better off cleaning out their refrigerators. [A "clean" version, sans profanity, was also released.]