Chad Gray Discusses Banned Mudvayne ‘Beautiful and Strange’ Video

Those unsettled by the graphic content of the new Mudvayne video 'Beautiful and Strange' will probably be more disturbed to know that the scene of a girl's lips being sewn shut was not simulated.

"[Director] Frankie [Nasso] (All That Remains, Hatebreed) was at [tattoo artist] Paul Booth's studio at a party with our product manager and witnessed it firsthand," Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray told Noisecreep. "After they got over the shock, they decided that she had to have a place in the video."

'Beautiful and Strange' is the second video of a three-part conceptual series from the band's new self-titled album. In addition to the lip-sewing flashback, the clip depicts a man from band's last video, 'Scream with Me,' bursting out of a casket and entering an adjoining grave with a beautiful female corpse. After he kisses her, she comes back to life and the two have sex while visions of abuse and torture reel through her mind.

The video was banned by all major video outlets because of its mature subject matter, and can only be seen on the social networking site Vampire Freaks.

"I believe that there is as much, if not more, value to the interest created by a 'banned' video as there is in promoting through traditional channels," Gray said. "We have received almost 400,000 views of the video at Vampirefreaks.com already."

The clip for 'Beautiful and Strange' was shot in the beginning of December 2009 at a sound stage and cemetery in New Jersey just outside New York City. Mudvayne aren't featured in any of the shots, so they weren't present at the shoot, but they had input into the treatment.

"We intentionally set out to create something that would push buttons," Gray said. "Frankie Nasso had a vision for a three video story that would really step outside your typical music video and I think he's nailing it. It's hard to see the whole story by just watching one video, but once [the final video] 'Heard It All Before' is released in a few weeks you'll be able to watch them all together."

While the goal wasn't to create a video that no one would play, Gray understands why video outlets have been squeamish to post 'Beautiful and Strange.' "I'm not surprised at all that it got banned," he said. "It's pretty damn hard to watch. [Actually] there were edits done to try and get it within standards, but at the end of the day we decided to let it live as it was originally intended."