There is one fundamental problem Papa Roach will always have to contend with. For a good proportion of their fan base Papa Roach were one of the bands which they grew up with; essentially they were a band that got a number of teenagers into rock music, and with that you’re going to come up against some very difficult problems to combat. You either annoy those that love you for who you were and create something different, or keep churning out the same type of music over and over again becoming stagnant. You’re not going to please everyone, that’s for certain; all that you can do in the end is create the music that you enjoy making, and hope that it comes out exactly like you want, and if it does seem to be highly similar to what you’ve done in the past, hope that it doesn’t start becoming stale.
F.E.A.R. seems to be a nice middle ground, it all feels very safe, yet at the same time there are a couple of tracks, or a couple of verses which mix it up again, and ultimately it is those tracks that stand out above all else. ‘Gravity’ and ‘Face Everything and Rise’ are two tracks which try to add something a little bit unique to the classic Papa Roach formula. ‘Face Everything and Rise’ adds what feels like the staple drum and bass/electronic tones here and there. It’s a feature that a huge number of bands are using these days, to the point that it’s now becoming common place pretty much everywhere. ‘Gravity’ on the other hand see’s Jacoby Shaddix try his hand at what is essentially a classic rapping track, and ultimately succeeding. In the grand scheme of things ‘Gravity’ is the biggest departure from what you think of when you think of classic Papa Roach, and it works, it’s not fantastic, but it works.
F.E.A.R. just feels altogether too much of the same, and although the hardcore Papa Roach fans will love every second of it, that distinctive sound can start to get a bit stale, and after a while they’re going to start slipping into obscurity, and becoming too much like a nostalgia band more than anything, something like what Good Charlotte became. Overall it’s not a bad album by any stretch, and there is enough here that will play very well live, but there’s always that hunger in the back of your mind that hopes that they would do something a little bit more, something a little bit different and branch out.
