L.D. 50

“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.
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.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. The album is a favorite within Mudvayne fans, and contains some of the band’s heaviest, most progressive songs to date.

L.D. 50 is considered a concept album dealing with the pushing of boundaries and subsequent evolution (also the connection between all the things that make us humans and hallucinogenics,drugs). 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. The first single released from the album, “Dig”, won the MTV2 Award in 2001. “Death Blooms”, the album’s second single is a song that lead singer, Chad Gray, wrote about his grandma’s struggle against bad medical condition she was in for years. “Nothing To Gein”, album’s third single is a bizarre trip through fifties serial killer, Ed Gein’s mind. These singles pawned the way for a highly successful album, however, critics claimed that all the songs on the album are equally competent as it’s singles, or even better.