“This record is about all the connections I have in my life,” says Jacoby Shaddix, frontman for Papa Roach. “It’s what I feel with my band, with music, with myself, with friends and with our fans when we come together. When we connect, we all become something greater.”
Which helps explains The Connection, the title of Papa Roach’s seventh album and first full-length studio record for Eleven Seven Music. It's a remarkably modern record that both solidifies the hard rock group’s signature sound – big choruses, loud guitars, raw introspection – while sonically taking a great leap ahead.
Exploring new musical territory is nothing new for the California band (rounded out by Jerry Horton, Tobin Esperance and Tony Palermo), which over the course of almost two decades has released an impressively diverse string of Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum records, starting with 2000’s Infest (featuring their breakout single “Last Resort”) through 2009’s top 10 album Metamorphosis. In that time, Papa Roach has racked up dozens of hits, including “She Loves Me Not,” “Getting Away with Murder,” “Scars,” “…To Be Loved,” “Forever,” “Lifeline” and “Kick in the Teeth."
The only thing those songs have in common? A refusal to stand put and play it safe.