After I bought Papa Roach’ latest release, I figured out, what the heck, why don’t buy the album they released before that one, too? Unfortunately, that was a bummer. Their style has changed somewhat from Infest to lovehatereagedy. It’s not much of a change, but it’s considerable in one way: On Infest vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, or Coby Dick if you will, is screaming and rapping a lot more than in lovehatetragedy. Also, this album noisier. But enough of the comparing, let’s look at Infest as an isolated element. After all, it was released two years before lovehatetragedy.

The album starts out awfully quiet. So quiet that I wasn’t sure my CD player was properly connected to my amplifier. But after a few seconds, the show starts. And that was the only few quiet seconds on this album. It’s just too noisy. Too much screaming and bellowing. Too much distortion. Too much rap. To put it short: too much for me. I’m beginning to think that I’m about to turn into a soft nu-metal geek. And that’s a scary thought.

“But isn’t that a bit shallow?” you probably ask while throwing Papa Roach merchandise at me. Well, maybe so. I haven’t looked much at the lyrics. Because if the music isn’t right, the lyrics can be as good as they want to for my sake. It would be like reading a poem, and I didn’t buy a book of poems, I bought an album - with music. That I would prefer to listen to. Not read. Get the point?

The only song I really liked on this album is hidden on the last track. And it’s got nothing to do with the rest of the album. It’s a nice and slow reggae-influenced track. Strange days…

If you’re a fan of heavy rock, metal and rap-rock with a slight touch of nu-metal thrown in just for kicks, I would certainly recommend this album. It’s got killer reviews all over the place and there is probably a good reason for that hidden somewhere. For the rest of you, I think this album can be summed up in one word: Nah…