Papa Roach
Infest

THE REVIEW

I have never particularly followed the nu-metal scene, also due to my near-zero appreciation for rap and hip hop. Nevertheless, credit must be given where it's due, and the validity of certain works must be recognized.

Papa Roach, formed in 1993 in Vacaville, released "Infest" in 2000 after their self-produced debut, the album that consecrated them and the most beloved by fans.

The album itself is quite homogeneous (there are no ballads like "Scars" to be clear), but it is smooth and well-packaged, and it's the only one entirely reducible to the rap-metal movement, a genre from which Shaddix and associates would depart with each subsequent album. The tones here remain consistently high, and the atmosphere here is different from what fills the lungs of listeners of their latest works.

The album opens with the title track, an excellent example of a song that acts as a landmark for both the album and the genre, where we find all the elements that characterize the album: solid and tight riffing, compact rhythm section, rapping and scratching, screaming (though never taken to the extreme), and the right amount of melody.

The alternation between "spoken" verses and sung choruses is found in many tracks such as the famous "Last Resort" (which deals with suicide), the piece that made them famous above all others, although other tracks are superior. The explosive and heavy "Dead Cell" where Shaddix uses all his vocal power in the chorus, "Blood Brothers," and "Between Angels And Insects," one of the strengths of the platter, with the right amount of catchiness and quality plunging you into an almost emotional spiral of tension.

Other pieces, however, have a style closer to alternative metal and are among my favorite tracks: the wonderful "Broken Home," where Papa Roach once abdicates from the song-form, the nocturnal and consistently high-level "Binge," as well as "Never Enough" with clear grunge influences, shouting Nirvana at the top of its lungs in the chorus.

The curtain falls with the bonus "Legacy," which could have easily been included in the standard version, and "Thrown Away + the ghost track "Tightrope" (retrieved from a previous EP along with other songs here reprised) that acts as a tail partly separating itself from the rest.

Despite having to admit that Papa Roach lacks that certain something, which perhaps in the crossover/nu-metal cauldron the Deftones might have, that more discerning listeners might seek, the Californians with "Infest" deliver a product that satisfies both the public and critics, a remarkable work that knows how to combine freshness and energy.

It would truly be four and a half bullets, but I've always been lenient with grades, so five and that's the end of it.