L.D. 50 (album)

This article is about the studio album. For the concert video, see L(ive) D(osage) 50: Live in Peoria.

Untitled

L.D. 50 is the debut studio album by the band Mudvayne, released in 2000 through Epic Records and produced by GGGarth. Shawn Crahan from Slipknot is also credited as being an executive producer.

Album information

The title refers to the LD₅₀ or median lethal dose, a toxicology term meaning the dose amount of a toxic substance required to kill 50% of a tested population.

L.D. 50 is considered a concept album dealing with the pushing of boundaries and subsequent evolution.

The first single released from the album, "Dig", won the MTV2 Award in 2001.

The spoken words in Monolith are from Terence McKenna, a famous hallucinogens researcher, explaining his theory of how apes evolved to humans by consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Also in Monolith is a sample taken from the movie Total Recall. The words "Open your mind," can be heard.

The album art features the Sephirot of Hermetic mysticism as well as photographs of a naked baby and chemistry models. The chemical models are representations of the major active ingredients found in the psychedelic drugs LSD and DMT.

Also, the numbers 12:97:24:99 are printed within the cover art, later revealed as track 11 on The End of All Things to Come.

Reception

• Rolling Stone (9/28/00, pp. 53–4) — 3 stars out of 5 — "[Their] big songwriting device is the old Nirvana strategy: vulnerability in verses, ape-shit aggression in choruses and a pregnant moment in between....The interesting thing is that they are fancy musicians."
• Q magazine (12/00, p. 127) — 3 stars out of 5 — "A clever amalgam of Korn, Tool and Mr. Bungle....the Slipknot you can actually listen to."
• CMJ (9/11/00, p. 34) — "Futuristic aggro-metal....with electrifying samples and vats of bile fueling its songs."
• Melody Maker (10/17/00, p. 61) — 3.5 stars out of 5 — "A slithering cesspit of fetid malignance, nu-metal documenting its own internal decay."

Track listing

• All songs written by Mudvayne

1. "Monolith" — 1:52
2. "Dig" — 2:43
3. "Internal Primates Forever" — 4:25
4. "-1" — 3:58
5. "Death Blooms" — 4:52
6. "Golden Ratio" — 0:54
7. "Cradle" — 5:14
8. "Nothing to Gein" — 5:29
9. "Mutatis Mutandis" — 1:43
10. "Everything and Nothing" — 3:14
11. "Severed" — 6:33
12. "Recombinant Resurgence" — 2:00
13. "Prod" — 6:03
14. "Pharmaecopia" — 5:34
15. "Under My Skin" — 3:47
16. "(k)Now F(orever)" — 7:06
17. "Lethal Dosage" — 2:59

Personnel

• Chad Gray — Vocals
• Greg Tribbett — Guitar
• Ryan Martinie — Bass
• Matthew McDonough — Drums
• GGGarth — Production, Engineering, Electro-organic audio manipulation
• Andy Wallace — Mixing
• Steve Richards — Executive producer
• Shawn Crahan — Executive producer
• Andre Wahl — Engineering, Electro-organic audio manipulation
• Chris Vaughan-Jones — Engineering
• Ben Kaplan — Engineering
• Dean Maher — Engineering
• Scott Ternan — Assistant engineer
• Alex Aligizakis — Assistant engineer
• Paul Forgues — Assistant engineer
• Zak Blackstone — Assistant engineer
• Steve Sisco — Assistant mix engineer
• Howie Weinberg — Mastering
• Richard Leighton — Guitar technician
• Chris Crippin — Drum technician
• Chris Potter — Technical support
• Ron Vermuelen — Technical support

Chart positions

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2001	Top Heatseekers	1
	The Billboard 200	85

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2001	"Dig"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	33
	"Death Blooms"		32