MUDVAYNE Members Launch AUDIOTOPSY

Guitarist Greg Tribbett (MUDVAYNE, HELLYEAH),drummer Matt McDonough (MUDVAYNE),vocalist Billy Keeton (SKRAPE) and bassist Perry Stern have joined forced in a new band called AUDIOTOPSY. The group recently completed recording its debut album for a summer release. The album is currently being mixed.

"I'm extremely excited about AUDIOTOPSY," says Greg. "The music has everything you want in a record... heavy, melodic, atmospheric, big, hooky riffs/singalongs as well. The guys in the band are great and we all feel as if this was meant to happen. Everyone is very artistic and we all felt an energy from our first meeting. We can't wait for the world to hear AUDIOTOPSY and can't wait to get out there and tour the world. AUDIOTOPSY is coming! I'm ready to fuck shit up!"

Billy adds: "From the first few notes I knew this was going to be killer. The chemistry happening just took over and spawned this sound, this animal. I'm super stoked to get this music out, and to get this band on tour. Let the madness begin."

AUDIOTOPSY has not yet announced a label deal for its first CD, which is currently being mixed.

HELLYEAH and MUDVAYNE singer Chad Gray told Songfacts in a new interview that he doesn't know if the latter group will ever work together again. Asked if there was a chance for MUDVAYNE to regroup, Gray said, "I don't know if the full band will. Who knows — they might be putting something else together. We were talking for a while and that whole Greg thing went down and everything kind of fell apart."

"The Greg thing" was the departure of Tribbett from HELLYEAH in 2013. Gray called his connection with Tribbett "the only truly solid relationship in [MUDVAYNE], although Matt and I are still great, Ryan [Martinie, bass] and I still briefly talk. I mean, the only way I personally would want to do MUDVAYNE is if everybody licked their wounds and got over it."

Gray said that there were "a lot of things" that tore MUDVAYNE apart, adding, "Maybe MUDVAYNE was the martyr for people that stopped supporting music. You sell 159,000 records the first week, and then the next record is like, 'Whatever, fuck it.'"

Gray admitted to Revolver recently that Tribbett's exit from HELLYEAH "was like losing a great friend… He has always been my right-hand man."

MUDVAYNE posted a message on Facebook one year ago saying that the band had not broken up and would be "back in action" at some point.

It's been more than five years since MUDVAYNE released its self-titled fifth album, which was barely promoted and sold weakly upon release.