Staind – Tormented

'Tormented' is Staind's debut studio album that was released November 29th 1996. The Tormented album was the band's first studio record and was rarely sold in stores, there was originally 4,000 CD copies and 400 cassette tapes, making it hard to find. The album contains the original version of the song "Mudshovel" at that time, it was called "Mudshuvel" which later propelled Staind into mainstream rock success in the year 1999. All of the songs on the album deal with pain, sorrow, animosity, hate, drug abuse, anger and depression, with a gun being loaded and cocked at the beginning and fired at the end along with the hidden track "The Funeral", making revolve around a depressed, hateful and tortured individual who later commits suicide. The album is well known for it's uncanny and grotesque art, depicting a bloody crucifix, a buried person with a rosary protruding through its nose, a knife impelling a bible with 357 bullets surrounding it, and a note that says "Tormented" written in blood.