F.E.A.R. by Papa Roach 

Album Reviews — January 27, 2015 at 10:00

Papa Roach, one of the driving forces of the hard rock/nu metal genre of the early 2000s, is back with a brand new album and it’s everything you’d expect a Papa Roach album to be. It’s raw, it’s energetic, it’s hard-rocking and it draws its sound from a wide range of influences. And with this new release, their 8th, the California-based rockers prove that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

F.E.A.R. is the title of the album, but it’s more than just a title. It refers to a specific mindset and serves as a philosophy, providing words to live by or a mantra, of sorts. An acronym for “Face Everything And Rise”, which also happens to be the title of the first single off the album, F.E.A.R. derives from the idea that strength can come from the raw emotion brought upon by fear and that it can be used as fuel to drive change in a positive way. And without a doubt, that theme courses through the entire album, giving it a decisively powerful feel with uplifting undertones.

Related: Papa Roach Releases New Single Face Everything and Rise

Stylistically, the album is an amalgam that encompasses everything that Papa Roach has been over the years, from the powerful guitar riffs and highly melodic lines of something like 2006’s The Paramour Sessions, to rap influenced lyrics reminiscent of earlier, Infest era tracks. A song like “Gravity”, for example, with its painfully honest spoken word verses and sorrow-filled lyrical chorus, is the perfect embodiment of this new “modern meets vintage” stylistic approach, while songs such as “Broken As Me” and “Hope For The Hopeless” are the kind of straight up hard-hitting tracks we’ve come to know and love Papa Roach for.

In a way, F.E.A.R. is a complete package and the culmination of the band’s fifteen plus years of growth and evolution. It bears the mark of a band in full control of its artistic capabilities and it is sure to speak to Papa Roach fans, old and new, as it carves itself a place of choice in the band’s already impressive body of work. Because after all, great things can come out of fear.

F.E.A.R. comes out January 27th, 2015, with the band currently touring the US in support the album (See tour dates here).

For your music library: “Love Me ’Til It Hurts”, “Hope For the Hopeless”, “Face Everything And Rise”

Tags #music album review confront CONFRONT Magazine F.E.A.R. Face Everything and Rise new music papa roach

Author: Caroline Forest Caroline is an independent writer, photographer and videographer whose idea of a perfect day includes a road trip and a big dose of rocking out. You can find her in her natural habitat at concert venues and karaoke bars around the world, or online, on twitter and instagram under @ Karo_lynn.

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