Mudvayne's disappointing follow up to LD50.
So disappointing, in fact, that I don't know why I'm writing this review.
A couple tracks stand out, actually it's more like sections of tracks. The whole album starts out with the Silenced or Silenceo or whatever it is. The music is pretty angry and moderately interesting, with a bit of homage to the single Dig from their first album, LD50, but the lyrics are just pathetic. "Is it a possiblity that we're all just equal." Gone are the explorations of evolution or anything else, for that matter, just whiney crap in its place. When you can understand it. Sometimes it's lame enough where you don't want to, "Insult me in my home, well you were never in my den." What the hell is this supposed to be? Now, I admit, I didn't consult any lyric sheets. I just thank whatever god there is that it ends in static in less than 3 minutes.
Okay, you know how in some metal, there's some nice singing that helps take off the torrent of the hopefully brutal riffage that you bought the album for. Trapped in the Wake of a Dream is the exact opposite, you yern for the riffs and it doesn't matter that they suck because the guy isn't singing like shit any more. It's a very odd gimmick. Now, it may be because it was produced by David Bottrill, whose done the last two Tool albums, but really, the singing is really bad because the singer is trying to sound like he is Maynard from Tool. It would be ten billion times better if they did the two singer thing.
The highlight of Trapped . . . is the ranting section about 3 minutes in, which, of course, sounds like something else, like everything else on the album. This particular bit sounds like the middle section of Monkey Wrench by the Foo Fighters.
The rest of the album is pretty much a poor imitation of their previous album by a group who has spent too much time listening to System of a Down's Toxicity, tool, and Linkin Park lately.
I don't even want to talk about World so Cold.
It's not a total wash, though. The album is plenty short enough that if you want to burn a mix, you can throw some great tracks off LD50 to spice up the CD a bit. It's produced pretty well by Mr. Bottrill, but that really gives it the tool rip off vibe, to me.
Tracklist taken from allmusic.com
1. Silenceo (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 3:01
2. Trapped in the Wake of a Dream (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 4:43
3. Not Falling (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 4:03
4. (Per)version of a Truth (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 4:41
5. Mercy, Severity (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 4:54
6. World So Cold (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 5:39
7. The Patient Mental (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 4:38
8. Skrying (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 5:39
9. Solve et Coagula (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 2:49
10. Shadow of a Man (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 3:55
11. 12:97:24:99 (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 0:11
12. The End of All Things to Come (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 3:00
13. A Key to Nothing (Gray/Martinie/McDonough/Tribbett) - 5:07
Produced by David Bottrill