Papa Roach, Getting Away With Murder

Getting Away With Murder is another great album from Papa Roach Different style but Absolutely Brill Best Yet

I have like Papa Roach ever since "Last Resort", but I hadn't really heard much else from them. I'm blaming my local radio stations for that. There is a new rock station, that I loved at first, but they started playing the same songs over and over; but, they do occasionally incorporate new music. When I heard "Scars", for the first time, I loved it! I can literally and figuratively identify with it. So, I bought GAWM. I got it on a Wednesday, by Friday I knew most of the lyrics. Now, it's a part of driving music collection.

Papa Roach, Getting Away With Murder may be worth to listen to nu-metal fans, but for the "too musical" ones, I wouldn't suggest it.

Before the release of the album 'Getting Away with Murder' (Geffen Records) Papa Roach had never caught my attention. This CD grabbed my attention with the disgustingly popular title track 'Getting Away with Murder'. This song had a techno feel mixed with rock, it wasn't like anything I had heard. So I checked out the CD. What I found was nothing like I expected.

To start with in the song 'Getting Away with Murder' vocalist Jacoby Shaddix has a very deep voice. In the rest of the songs it stays at normal octave which shocked me when I first heard it since all I had heard from Shaddix was a deep voice. This however isn't necassarily a bad thing. I think the album actually would have sounded wierd with a deep voice through out the whole thing.

The album takes off with 'Blood (Empty Promises)'. This was a strong kick off, starting with quiet guitar and taking off into a hardcore song of deceit and betrayal. The next two songs 'Not Listening' and 'Stop Looking Start Seeing' aren't spectacular in any way. These two were the only real dissapointments of the 12 tracks.

The song 'Take Me' is one of my favorites. Starting off with a beautiful intro and then carrying on strong with amazing lyrics. Its the "story of a broken soul" and you can hear the feeling with its meaningful lyrics.

One very significant song that deserves some recognition is 'Scars'. This is a very powerful song written by Shaddix. The chorus, "I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut. My weakness is that I care too much. Our scars remind us that the past is real. I tear my heart open just to feel.", is beautiful set to Shaddix's rough and edgy voice. In an interview (found on the enhanced cd of 'Getting Away with Murder') Shaddix admits that this song is very meaningful to him, the lyrics set to a real life situation he had experienced recently.

The music (mostly written by Tobin Esperance with the occasional help of Jerry Horton) is perfectly intertwined with the lyrics, you won't find the overkill with the guitar like you find most of the time in some newer albums. The guitar and drums lift the lyrics rather than weigh them down. They've perfected the art of keeping the instruments as background yet still noticeable.

So to sum it up, I found this to be a very good album. The lyrics were definitely the biggest strength, true genius found in a lot of them. The only real weakness I found was the vocals were occasionally overdone, but nothing that would discourage me from reccomending it to anyone. A very good album from Papa Roach.