Mudvayne have announced that they will be making a return to music following a 12-year hiatus, confirming that they will exclusively play at four Danny Wimmer Presents festivals later this year.
As part of their comeback, the heavy metal outfit will play at each of the DWP festivals that are currently scheduled to go ahead, which includes sets at Louder Than Life, Aftershock and Welcome to Rockville, as well as a headline performance at the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival.
The comeback is a result of “years of trying” from Danny Wimmer, founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, to get Mudvayne back onto the live music scene following an outpouring of requests from festival fans.
It also marks the first time the five-piece – composed of vocalist Chad Gray, bass guitar player Ryan Martinie, electric guitar heavyweight Greg Tribbett and drummer Matthew McDonough – have been together in over a decade since the release of their self-titled filth album, which the band didn’t tour upon its release. As such, it will be the first time the band has performed live since 2009.
In a statement, Wimmer commented, “In our fan surveys, Mudvayne has consistently been one of the most requested bands – even though they weren’t an active band!
“We’ve been working for years to make this happen, so when I got the all that they’d finally take a meeting, [DWP Executive VP and Talent Buyer] Gary Spivack and I jumped at the chance to fly to Vegas,” he continued.
“We sat down with Mudvayne, their lawyer Eric German, Manager Diony Sepulveda and agent Ryan Harlacher – the band hadn’t even been in the same room for 10 years – and pleaded our case for why the time was right for this to happen.
“We were hoping to announce this in 2020, we’re fortunate enough to be able to do it in 2021, and DWP is super pumped to have Mudvayne exclusively at all four of our festivals this year.”
The band initially put things on hold to allow Gray and Tribbett to develop their side project Hell Yeah, though a reunion never seemed an impossibility, with Martinie telling Metal Sucks in 2019 that “there’s always talk of us coming back”.
“I’m fortunate enough that the thing that we made together still garners some kind of interest from our fans and for those people who may have wanted to see us and never got to,” he continued. “As far as it being a future item… I don’t know. Only time can tell.”
The dates for the festivals Mudvayne are set to play at are as follows:
- Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival, Ohio, September 10-12
- Louder Than Life, Kentucky, September 23-26
- Aftershock, California, October 8
- Welcome to Rockville, Florida, November 11-14
For more information, head over to Danny Wimmer Presents.
