Papa Roach. I had never heard of them. A little strange actually, considering the fact that their last album, Infest, went triple-platinum in the US. So it was pretty obvious that I had missed out on something. Because, even though nu-metal has lost some of its edge, it’s still a good genre. A little over-populated at times, but as with most other things in life, only the big and the bad survive in the long run. Could Papa Roach be one of the lucky few?

One, two, three, four - the album starts off with M-80 (Explosive Energy Movement) a nice piece of music that mostly lays the standard for the next 39 minutes. It’s catching, pumping and highly influenced. Listening through lovehatetragedy makes me think about a lot of other bands. M-80 sounds like it could be a Foo Fighters tune. And a pretty good one, too.

Other tracks sound like they are somewhat influenced by bands like Aussie rockers Fuel and Bush, while parts of the title track of lovehatetragedy could have been taken directly from one of Radiohead’s albums. Unfortunately, for Radiohead maybe, this track is the poorest on the album.

But you can’t really call lovehatetragedy a bad song. There are no bad songs on this album. Some of them are immediately catchy, while some of the really grows on you - and you’re not jumping around in your living room playing air guitar before you hear the tune for the tenth time. And that’s a good thing about an album.

So, why don’t lovehatetragedy hit the top score? It’s lacking something. It needs more tracks. With only 39 minutes of playing time, it’s a little bit like leaving the party when the wet t-shirt contest starts. Papa Roach has also been influenced a little too much by other bands. Listening to the album right now, I think I hear a little of Staind, too. It’s kind of like buying a Best of Rock and Nu-Metal album, and it sounds a little like vocalist Jacoby Shaddix is twisting his voice to sound like some other famous vocalist. He doesn’t have to that.