Papa Roach can add their name to a growing list of bands who have abandoned the rap metal scene. Like others, they have attempted to recreate a new style of music and in their case, they coined the genre “punk metal.” They’re now an eerie punk band with an eerie punk sound. They’re also a band with weird hairstyles and platinum pants. After changing those characteristics, out came Getting Away With Murder, the group’s fourth album.
The title alone suggests Papa Roach has survived the most extraordinary circumstances and are finally telling their story (and in the process, rubbing it in people’s faces). In the opening cut “Blood,” Jacoby Shaddix attempts to persuade people to follow him as he sings, “Y’better join us before you get lost in the shuffle / Y’better rise against the demons that are gonna try and hold you down.” If his message is “listen to me, buy my CD and be the best you can be,” then I rather watch an army recruiting commercial. If you hear “Do or Die,” then you’ll hear the same thing. “Scars,'” one of the few intriguing songs on the album, is about helping out others when they don’t realize they have a problem, which makes me believe Shaddix was a drug addict. Over a mellow rhythm, Shaddix sings, “I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut/My weakness is that I care too much/Our scars remind us the past is real/I tear my heart open, just to feel.” Yea, definitely a drug addict.
Miraculously, the best ballad on the album sounds like their older stuff. The title track, “Getting Away With Murder” is a hard rock tune with tremendous bass pounding. It gets the adrenaline pumping so much, even Mike Tyson could win a boxing match. The chorus speaks for itself: “I feel irrational’ so confrontational/To tell the truth I am getting away with murder/It is impossible to never tell the truth/But the reality is I’m getting away with murder.”
Getting Away With Murder is a new beginning for Papa Roach. Although it’s not necessarily a good beginning, it is a new one. It definitely isn’t a platinum album and if their future efforts sound like this, they may never have another one. But whatever happens, they should ditch the platinum pants.
Papa Roach: Getting Away With Murder
Rating: 2 1/2 Stars
Record Label: Geffen
Official Website: PapaRoach.com
3 replies on “ReView: Papa Roach – Getting Away With Murder”
I really liked Infest, and I still do. Lovehatetragedy had a few decent songs on it, but it was a letdown compared to their debut. I’ve heard nothing from this album, and I’m not sure I really want to.
That said, eluding to Jacoby being a drug addict doesn’t have much to do with the album itself. I mean, if he truly wrote that song about being a drug addict and you’ve got facts to back it up, fine. But it seems like a hefty accusation/assumption to just be throwing around, regardless how shitty an album this is.
“It gets the adrenaline pumping so much, even Mike Tyson could win a boxing match.”
What in the world?
hey i believe this was one of thier best albums. i hav blow up my head phones twice already listening to this album
i think that anybody who doesn’t like papa roach or their lyrics is a piece of shit and they can go to fucking hell! and in papa roach defence bear frazer is a fucking bitch who doesn’t know shit!