Jobie Reviews Music 81: Infest (album) by Papa Roach
- ChemicalSkylines
- Apr 6, 2021
- 2 min read
Infest is a 2000 nu metal album by the band Papa Roach*. The album encompasses 13 tracks, totaling 52 minutes of music. The album’s lyrical content focuses on themes of violence, depression, and many other topics personal to the band. This is seen especially in the track “Broken Home”, which has lyrical content that pertains to the fact that all the members of Papa Roach came from broken homes, hence the title.
As for the quality of the music itself, it’s some pretty good stuff. The tracks featured on this album contain great instrumentation, vocals, and overall are of quality. This is especially true for one of the tracks on this album that you might recognize. I say this, because it has 606 million plays on Spotify. Can you guess which track that is? If you guessed “Last Resort”, then you’re correct! It’s the most well known, highly rated track on the entire album, and not without reason.
“Last Resort” is what really caused this album to be a commercial success in the first place (this album sold like crazy back when it was first released), receiving massive attention by listeners. This lends itself to the very real, unfortunate subject matter that many can relate to. That song in particular talks about suicide and self-harm, in a way that’s relatable and done well. It doesn’t glorify it or make light of it either, as can be heard by the nicely done vocals Jacoby Shaddix delivers, which are full of angst and emotion.
Speaking of angst and emotion, that’s one of the things that’s particularly noticeable on this album. When listening to the tracks on here, you’ll find that most tracks are angsty in nature, with most even having screaming in it. This actually adds to the album’s sound, rather than subtracting from it. It’s emotion like this that makes the album feel more personal - the way Papa Roach likely intended it.
The only drawback that this album has is that some tracks are weaker than others, but this only accounts for a small selection of tracks across 13 tracks. It’s cool that the album was able to hold up past “Last Resort”, with most tracks being of quality, as I’ve said before.
Some of my favorite tracks from this album are “Last Resort”, “Between Angels and Insects”, and “Legacy”.
Overall, this album delivers well on all fronts, with good instrumentation, vocals, and lyrics. A perfectly angsty nu metal fest with personal tracks throughout.
*The version of the album I reviewed is apparently the “Import version”, which Spotify claims was released in 2001. There is no evidence whatsoever to back this up. This version of the album includes a few bonus tracks, but there are no major differences between it and the regular version.
Overall rating:
8.8/10
LINK TO ALBUM:
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