I'm running away, away from the games, away from the space, the circumstances of a world so cold.
The End of All Things to Come, Mudvayne's second album, was recorded as "deadline management": the band didn't want to take more than two years between albums, but in order to make their own self-imposed deadline, they had to come up with an album's worth of material in four months. So they went into self-imposed isolation and spent four months writing and rehearsing, then went back into the studio for another four months to record the album.It resulted in another acclaimed album, although this would be the start of some Misaimed Fandom's complaints about the decreasing use of Harsh Vocals, as Extreme Metal fans claimed that songs which leaned more to the Progressive Rock side of the band's style, and not the Progressive Metal side, equated to the band "going pop". Lost And Found, The New Game and the band's Self Titled Album featuring little to no Harsh Vocals increased this perception, although the band would remain consistently progressive throughout and after its 2009-2021 hiatus.
The End of All Things to Come was described by the band as their "black album", due to its nearly all-black cover. See also Mudvayne 2009, the band's "white album".
Track listing:
- "Silenced" 3:01
- "Trapped in the Wake of a Dream" 4:41
- "Not Falling" 4:04
- "(Per)version of a Truth" 4:41
- "Mercy, Severity" 4:55
- "World So Cold" 5:40
- "The Patient Mental" 4:38
- "Skrying" 5:39
- "Solve et Coagula" 2:49
- "Shadow of a Man" 3:55
- "12:97:24:99" 0:11
- "The End of All Things to Come" 3:01
- "A Key to Nothing" 5:07
I'm trapped in the wake of a trope:
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Bonus Material: "Goodbye" and "On the Road" appeared on a special edition of the album. They are not related to the album's storyline or central concepts. - Concept Album: There's a recurring lyrical theme that aliens have come to Earth to "save" the human race — by destroying it, using the median lethal dose of "a barrel of cyanide" and "a pile of strychnine". The aliens are angered by greed, nationalism and leaders motivated by self-benefit at the expense of their citizens, and have decided that genocide is the best solution, and that when the entire world is dead, civilization can start over again with the specimens they've captured and study ("The Patient Mental"), whose isolation leads them to feel they're "Trapped in the Wake of a Dream", while those remaining on Earth in the days leading up to the destruction begin to view the world as cold and heartless.
- Esoteric Motifs: The End of All Things to Come references astrology, alchemy, Kabbalah, and various other esoteric subjects.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: At the end of "A Key to Nothing". It's a clear Shout-Out to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who did the same thing at the end of their song "Knife-Edge".
- Minimalistic Cover Art: A couple of black-grey symbols on a black background. The band described this as their "black album".
- Miniscule Rocking: "12:97:24:99" consists of 11 seconds of silence.
- Textless Album Cover: The images on the cover might be an alien language.
- Uncommon Time: The song "Trapped in the Wake of a Dream" boasts verses written in 17/8, choruses in 11/8 and a bridge that mixes both time signatures.
- Mcdonough said "If I hadn't pointed out which song was written in 17/8 I don't think most people would have noticed. It's a strange time signature but it works because it's smooth", while Gray added that it was the hardest song on the album to record.
