Mudvayne released their album L.D. 50 in 2000, which contained the song "Dig". For no readily apart reason in 2019, the song's opening bass line has become a huge meme as the onomatopoeia "BR-BR DENG". We've posted a 10 hour loop of it as well as one where the song slows down every time the riff is played, mostly because they're so much damn fun.
MetalSucks recently caught up with Mudvayne bassist Ryan Martinie about the meme and talked to him a bit about how he feels that it's gone viral. Martinie says he didn't even know until Job For a Cowboy bassist Nick Schendzielos.
“‘Uhhhhh, you’re viral bro,'” Schendzielos told Martinie. “I don’t think either of us thought a whole ton of it. Then all of a sudden it’s this damn thing that’s running amok on the Internet. I think it’s been really fun for everybody,” he enthuses.
Martinie adds that he thinks it's great people are having fun with the riff, though he adds "Now that I’ve got my own onomatopoeia, if we ever play that damn thing live at some point, I know that’s gonna go through my head and I’m gonna have to stop myself from laughing while playing that damn riff. It’s funny!"
“It’s super awesome that people have had a good time with it and have been able to share something that I actually had nothing to do with,” Martinie tells MetalSucks by phone from his home in North Carolina. “I’m as curious as everyone else as to why and where and how and what. Who made up this onomatopoeia? I guess that’s the first question. ‘Brbr-DENG.’ Who actually came up with that?,” he muses. “It’s me! That would’ve been a clever trick! But no, I’m not that kind of magician.”
