Since the formation of
Papa Roach, the band had been widely known as a fusion of nu-metal and rap. For their latest record,
Getting Away With Murder, Papa Roach has somewhat changed their style of music. While still holding on to the influence of nu-metal slightly, Jacoby has stopped using rap in the lyrics and the music is more oriented towards modern rock. The album has now currently been declared of having reached platinum sales. The second single
Scars, has become a huge hit and is played heavily on the radio, despite the fact that the rest of the album is really nothing like it.
The musicianship on the record is surprisingly done well and there is actually a bit of variety on the record. Jacoby Shaddix’s singing is mainly comprised of singing cleanly, but he certainly can yell if he wants to. First thing noteworthy is the obvious fact that he has gone from ‘spitting’ out rhymes in the music to becoming an exceptional singer. Now, he is definitely not the best singer ever, but the transition from songs
Last Resort and
Blood Brothers is amazing. The song and third single
Take Me is vocally my favorite song on the album, very smooth and the chorus works very well with the music. Near the end of the song
Not Listening, Coby yells loudly which actually also works well with the song, he won’t yell a lot on the record, but when he does it adds well to the overall value of the individual song. The lyrics themselves are entertaining and while some will find this corny, the lyrics are the kind that make you want to just pump your fist in the air, particularly evident on the second half of the song
Take Me when he sings “Does anyone around me feel the same, put your fists up and vent your pain”. Some lyrics however are really cliché to me such as “Why does the truth always have to hurt” and “There’s a time to lead and a time to follow”, which are both found on the song
Stop Looking. The song
Scars, is now likely the most well known song from the band, but doesn’t reflect what the rest of the album is like. This song is likely the most emotional song that the band has ever written and Coby’s singing fits it well. It is a good song and the strongest thing it has going for it is his singing, but it gets repetitive after a while.
The guitar work for this band is done by Jerry Horton and fits the style of the band well complimenting Coby’s singing. There are some creative riffs found throughout the album. While the guitar work on the first single
Getting Away With Murder is good, I just can’t stand the song itself; it seems very boring and repetitive to me. There is some double tracking on the album with the guitar, but it doesn’t bother me since I don’t plan on seeing the band live ever. Most of the time the guitar work is strictly power chords and this is probably what causes the feeling of repetitiveness on the album. As for the bass, well, nothing can really be said about Tobin Esperance’s playing because he never really stands out at all. The title track
Getting Away With Murder, is just about as good as the bass will get, which is pretty sad. The drum work on the album from Dave Black is actually quite enjoyable to me. He dishes out some tight beats and nice drum fills throughout the album and my favorite performance from him is probably on the song
Tyranny of Normality, which is also my favorite song on the album partially because of the drums, but also because of the cool vocals that Coby does on the song.
A nice surprise on this album is the song
Sometimes, which features a nice acoustic guitar intro and Jacoby’s singing is very good on the album. The chorus and the acoustic guitar make this song one of the best on the album. There a couple of things that bug me about this album. The first has to do with the final song
Do or Die, it’s a good song, but I while I’ve heard of bands ripping of other bands riffs, I’ve never really heard a band rip off one of their own songs. Well, evidently there is a first time for everything because
Do or Die’s opening guitar riff is an almost exact rif off of the popular song
Blood Brothers. It doesn’t bother me to much, but I just think that it is something that is worth mentioning. One other problem that I had with this album is that there becomes a slight repetitiveness after a while. Many songs will start to sound the same to the point where I can’t even recognize the names of many of the songs when I listen to them and I will have to look at the case to remember what each of the songs are called. Besides that though, this album is actually pretty good to me. The best songs on the album are
Tyranny of Normality,
Take Me,
Not Listening, and
Sometimes. If you ever plan on buying a Papa Roach album, this is most likely your best choice. Overall, this album is surprisingly excellent to me, meaning it gets a rating of 4 out of 5.
, well, never mind cos this is a very good review.
