It's hard to call a musical trend official until it has spawned a much-reviled knockoff. Thus, in many senses the preeminence of bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn and Deftones was not necessarily of consequence until the advent of bands like Crazy Town and Papa Roach. The latter has been rightly criticized for embodying the worst trends of the nü-metal subset -- unchecked teen angst and mediocre rapping abilities -- but with the release of their much-lampooned sophomore effort Lovehatetragedy, it quickly became acceptable to ignore the fact that the band's debut, Infest, had some strengths on top of its admittedly glaring weaknesses.

Things open up with "Infest," a perfectly mixed bag of energy and stagnant cliché. "My name's Coby Dick / Mr. Dick if you're nasty," opens vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, and the realization quickly dawns that brilliant lyricism will not be this album's forté. But as the track progresses from clunky rap verses into smooth, heavy choral vibes, the album's strengths are made equally apparent -- a relatively slick loud/soft dynamic with some authentic energy once things are allowed to unfold. Progress through the album's tracks, and these strengths and weaknesses alternately take the wheel.

Standout tracks come and go throughout the album's vibe. The immediate contenders for top honors here are "Dead Cell," a punkish piece that's more focused on energy than anything else, with a pounding finish that's extremely hard not to enjoy, and the closer "Thrown Away," which segues with impressive power from one headbanging section to another, with Shaddix shedding the weak facade of being a great mic wielder and focusing instead on authentic angst -- "I am a mess / I've made a huge mess / I can't control myself" is the track's central passage, and the purely screamed closing of "Don't tell me to do it / Because I will" are truly spine-chilling. "Between Angels and Insects" is a generally potent diatribe against vapid materialism, and "Revenge" tells in excruciating detail the all-too-familiar story of an abusive relationship, from the perspective of the battered woman.

Cut to the album's singles, though, and it's immediately clear why Papa Roach takes so much heat as the embodiment of all things wrong with nü-metal. "Last Resort" is a generally energetic tune (though the fundamental musical ties to Green Day's "Brain Stew" would be near impossible to deny), but gets mired down in stereotypical, contrived lyrics about teenage suicide contemplation, and what's worse, there's no real resolution in sight, with Shaddix ending the song on a cry of "I can't go on living this way." Progress to "Broken Home," and things only get worse. "Broken home / All alone. . . / My wounds are not healing / Stuck in between my parents. . ." Blah, blah, skip.

A few of the non-released tracks also pander to cliché and come off as blatant filler. From "Blood Brothers," a terribly composed diatribe against violence in all forms, to "Binge," an anti-alcoholism rant with the subtlety of a brick to the face, to "Snakes," a poor attempt at imagery with a lot of superfluous lines about snakes, bites and blood, it does become apparent that Papa Roach is a band with an awful lot of work left to do. Perhaps most unfortunate is that they've failed to do this work, with an abysmal sophomore album that had even less musical and lyrical focus than its forebearer.

On the whole, Infest is just an album for anyone already interested in rap-metal. That the band composed some excellent winners here would be unfair to deny, but that they composed some horrible filler and left something to be desired in the lyrical department is an equally steelcast fact. Take it or leave it; Infest is simply what it is -- an average rap-metal CD, replete with all the strengths and weaknesses of the genre in question.


Papa Roach Discography

Infest (2000)
Lovehatetragedy (2002)
Getting Away With Murder (2004)
The Paramour Sessions (2006)

Recommended: Yes