Papa Roach - Musical Style

Musical Style

In their early independent releases and on their first two major label albums, Infest and Lovehatetragedy, the band tended to use nu metal and rap metal. Their later music has often been described as hard rock and rap rock as well as alternative metal. Additionally, with their 2009 album, Metamorphosis, as the name expresses, the band feels that their music is going through a transformation to "stuff that's...harder and faster", compared to the softer sound of their last few albums. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic has compared the band's recent work to 1980s glam metal, writing "At the close of the 2000s, the quartet has shed the rap and the angst, ditching all the alt-metal accoutrements to become a knowing update of an '80s Sunset Strip sleaze rock outfit."

Frontman Jacoby Shaddix said the following in an interview with the Dallas Music Guide regarding the band no longer using rapping in their music: "...the rapping's gone! I don't feel like rapping. I'm just over that...I just want to be a rocker. It's what I wanted to be when I was a kid". Shaddix has added this remark in another interview: "We’re a band that tries to walk that line between metal, hardcore, punk rock and pop music, and we do our best at trying to make it all cool".

Guitarist Jerry Horton said later in an interview by VerdamMnis Magazine that "It's kind of a natural thing for us, we've always been changing throughout the years. Of course, there are some things that stay the same in our sound but we do like to try new things to sort of stretch out a little bit our basis and therefore make it more interesting". He also said that the band is going to explore "electronic sounds for the next record".