Lovehatetragedy

Oh dear. US noiseniks Papa Roach appear to have swapped their nu metal riff-merchant status for a sound rooted deep in the loins of metal puristry, cutting back on the rap rock amalgam in favour of actual singing.

Couple this with a change of name, Coby Dick having reverted to the Birth Cert-verified Jacoby Shaddix, (apparently he didn’t like being called ‘Dick’ in interview transcriptions – who can blame him?) and you have the standard second major relase conundrum, otherwise known as the ‘Change of Direction’ album.

Sadly, the lack of anthemic power chords – which were so evident on Infest – weakens Lovehatetragedy, exorcising the very thing that made Papa Roach good in the first place. Even with a Pixies cover (‘Gouge Away’) and Brendan O’Brien (Korn, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Nirvana) on production duties, grace has not been saved.

Standard rhythms, predictable melodic progressions and turgid, mundane repetition (‘She Loves Me Not’, ‘Life Is A Bullet’ ), render Lovehatetragedy a dull, bland and frankly boring regurgitation of sub standard old skool rock.