"In just three short years, hard metal group Mudvayne sold more than two million records worldwide, earned four RIAA Gold-certified releases, garnered the first ever MTV2 Award, performed at tons of sold out shows around the world and have been featured on the pages of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Maxim, and more.Mudvayne formed in Peoria, IL in 1996 with sPaG (M. McDonough) on drums, Gurrg (G. Tribbett) on guitar, Kud (Chad Gray) as vocalist and Ryknow (Ryan Martinie) on bass. All the boys had bizarre and diverse backgrounds, from a history of sword swallowing (Martinie), to a self proclaimed genius (McDonough), but the one thing they have in common is the fact that they never studied the instruments they play with the group. As they first began to emerge as one of the leading heavy metal groups, they covered their faces with strange makeup configurations. Their self-released debut album, Kill, I Oughta, caught the attention of Epic Records and the group immediately signed with this major label. Not a year later and Mudvayne created their major release debut album, L.D. 50 in 2000. The album went gold and earned the boys the MTV2 Award for the single ""Dig.""Not ones to shy away from controversy, their music is splattered with death, harsh lyrics and tones that make all their albums extremely hard rock. As they involved themselves in the theatrics of the music, they often found themselves compared to another hard metal group that wore masks, Slipknot. Though Mudvayne toured with them, they deny that they found sole influence in their sound and style from the group.After touring for 18-months promoting their L.D. 50 album, Mudvayne immediately returned to the studio and recorded End of All Things to Come. The album heard more mainstream airplay and moved the guys further up the charts. In 2005 they released Lost and Found with Epic, followed by 2007's By the People, for the People. "