To occupy the time it will take HELLYEAH -- the supergroup featuring Mudvayne's Chad Grey & Greg Tribbett -- to run it's course and to further stall a new studio album that has been in the works for almost a year, the members of Mudvayne have decided to release something every fan wants: demos, live songs, demos, acoustic numbers, demos, b-sides & demos all wrapped up in a nice little package dubbed "By The People, For The People." Appropriately titled, as the tracklisting was handpicked by fans, during a poll held on the band's official website. The name works almost as a disclaimer, as if to say "If you don't like this CD, tough. You chose the songs. Deal with it."

Listening to the whole thing, one can't help but feel like they were duped out of some hard earned cash. Sure, b-side albums can be good -- just look to Static-X's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink "Beneath, Between & Beyond" for example -- but despite being chosen by the fans, this one falls extremely short. For starters, way too many demos. With the exception of one or two ("Silenced" comes to mind) they don't differ all that much from their counterparts and serve virtually no purpose. The live tracks -- including a sloppy version of "Dig" -- are leftovers from 2003's Summer Sanitarium Tour, which has already been documented in the form of a DVD and a live EP. It's a bit boring to revisit a tour from over four years ago so many times, especially when the band has logged many more since. Two b-sides from "The End Of All Things To Come" rear their ugly heads, and while "Goodbye" has a somewhat fresh sound to it, "On The Move" isn't even worthy of b-side status. On a brighter note, two new studio tracks are thrown in to help ease the pain. "Dull Boy," the album's token single and first taste of new music from the band in over two years, is a fun, catchy little song that you will find yourself singing along to quickly. "King Of Pain," a song ripped from The Police, shows that Mudvayne are more than capable of changing things up stylistically and begs the question of why they haven't in so many years.

If you're a hardcore fan, this could be considered a worthy purchase. Even if most of the material is throwaway at best, frontman Chad Grey pops in between songs to give some rough background details, and it's a nice touch. It's a bit troubling though that there aren't some rarer tunes to be found here. I mean, c'mon? Demos? You've made three studio albums (four counting their indie debut), surely there's more you're not showing us. "By The People, For The People" would have been a better deal if it had revealed more gems, not recycled fluff that's been released elsewhere.

This is a good album, a real treat for the fans! I like the idea of demoed songs and live versions of songs picked by the fans themselves!

The reason I gave four out of five stars is because most of the the songs are pre-recorded songs before they actually came on the the albums, other than its pretty good specially their new song dullboy.

This CD contains 16 songs. If you're a Mud-fan like me, you probably already bought Mudvayne's Live Bootleg off their website so you already own all 6 live tracks. If you're a Mud-fan like me, you probably already own the collectors edition of "The End of all Things to Come" so you already own 'On the Move' and 'Goodbye'. If you're a Mud-fan like me, you probably aren't very interested in hearing a Metallica-esque cover of a Police song. That leaves 7 tracks, 6 of which are demos. The demos are interesting, but after 1 or 2 listens you'll find that you'd rather hear the studio version. The only stand-out track is the acoustic version of Forget to Remember. Overall, I was very disappointed to wait 2 1/2 years for a new album only to have it be this.

As I logged on to this website, I read review as you are doing right now. And as I read those reviews, I noticed people giving lower than deserving scores. I believe the reason for this phenomenom is that people are focusing on the less than positive attributes. For instance, some say that Chad introducing every track before it playing highly detracts from the content, because the listener can't get into the "flow" of listening to the music. Others claim that the music isn't fresh enough and the demo tracks are not what the fans expected because the development stage for music is not all that exciting. When in contrast to the previous statement, the fans were the deciding factor in which songs were featured on the C.D. To the positive side, the demos do accomplish the role of filling in the gaps of how Mudvayne's songs mature from the scraps and dead-ends of the development stage, to the stuff that feeds our souls over and over again. Over all, I'm not disregarding the minor flaws here and there, but this C.D. is good enough for me to take my time and defend again those unintelligent, brainless. ill-advised, nonsensical, asinine, and daft comments and remarks. Peace out Negro