Getting Away with Murder

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Papa Roach released their third major label album, Getting Away with Murder, on 31 August 2004, at a time when audiences had turned away from nu-metal. The sub-genre was well and truly done, and everything associated with it had been kind of paved over. I don’t know if anyone expected this album to be a success, critically or commercially, but it ended up giving us some of Papa Roach‘s strongest and most enduring tracks, which surprised the hell out of me.

Like so many in my generation, Infest was my introduction to Papa Roach. It was the band’s major label debut, and their most successful album to date, bolstered by the success of singles like “Last Resort,” “Between Angels and Insects,” “Broken Home,” and “Dead Cell.” The album was a massive hit, selling over three million copies in the United States. Its success got the band on some of the biggest concert tours of the day. The Sick and Twisted Tour with longtime idols Korn, and then the inaugural Anger Management Tour with Limp Bizkit, Eminem and Xzibit in 2000. The following year saw the band scoring a spot on the main stage at Ozzfest in both the U.S. and Europe, alongside Disturbed, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, and Black Sabbath, just to name a few. This band was huge, and they seemed destined for nothing but big things.

Then came Lovehatetragedy in June of 2002. For whatever reason, it didn’t light up the charts the way Infest did. It had a decent chart debut, and the singles “She Loves Me Not” and “Time and Time Again” got some spins on rock radio, but the juice just wasn’t there. Unless you count the latter single’s use in a Pepsi Blue television ad, but I doubt it. I remember this album had a very short tour cycle, compared to that of its predecessor. In addition to headlining their own shows, the band returned to the Anger Management Tour, with Eminem, Ludacris, Xzibit, Bionic Jive, and The X-Ecutioners. A few months into 2003, the band — frontman Jacoby Shaddix, Jerry Horton (guitar), Tobin Esperance (bass), and Dave Buckner (drums) — wrapped things up and returned to the studio to start writing new material.

How can I even describe this point in music history? Korn and Limp Bizkit were pretty much done. You had Linkin Park and Evanescence enjoying continued success with Meteora and Fallen, respectively. However, much to the relief of many a rock purist, nu-metal was no longer the big thing. Much as I loved those bands, even I wanted to go somewhere else for inspiration. So, I looked backwards, on the preceding decades of hard rock and metal. Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Jane’s Addiction became my new (old) heroes.

Although listeners didn’t want another Bizkit, they didn’t quite know what they did want. Rock radio was in limbo, a mishmash of everything and nothing, disparate sub-genres that seemed to fill up the charts while the labels figured out what the next big thing would be.

You had Nickelback and 3 Doors Down, whose blend of post-grunge seemed average enough to occupy radio playlists in between trends. But they were nobody’s favourite.

You also had post-rock revivalists like Jet and The Darkness who excelled in reconfiguring the sounds of Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones for a modern audience. I was amazed at the production of those records, but still, when I wanted to listen to classic rock, I’d listen to… classic rock.

Then you had emo, which was just another manufactured quasi-punk aesthetic from major record labels masquerading as something deeply countercultural. No thanks.

The only album worth a damn at the time wasn’t rock at all, it was Outkast’s monumental double-disc Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Big Boi and Andre Benjamin were pushing the envelope, and we loved them for it.

Alas, in 2004, audiences in the rock and metal worlds were experiencing an identity crisis where nobody knew what was cool anymore. You could make the argument that “good” music was there, you just had to look for it. And you would be right in saying that, sure. I did, to an extent, but overall it was a weird time. And that’s not even factoring U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and the accompanying iPod ads.

It was in this environment that Papa Roach recorded Getting Away with Murder, originally titled Dancing in the Ashes. The band were without a label at the time, a casualty of Dreamworks being bought out. Eventually, they would sign with Geffen. Produced by Howard Benson (Cold, Crazy Town, P.O.D.), Murder continued the direction set by Lovehatetragedy, in that Shaddix would focus exclusively on singing, instead of rapping as he did on Infest. But while the previous album did feature one or two raps here and there, this album had none.

“That’s right, bitch, the rapping’s gone,” Shaddix would declare in an interview with the Dallas Music Guide. “I don’t feel like rapping. I’m just over that shit. It’s cool, I dig hip-hop, I just kind of became disenchanted with it. What it is and what it represents in the mainstream… there are some good artists, but just ninety percent of it is shit. There is good, underground hip-hop, but I’m a rocker, man. As far as what we’re doing, I just want to be a rocker. It’s what I wanted to be when I was a kid.”

And fair enough. If the kids were fed up with the rap-rock formula, imagine how the artists felt. They were the ones on the road an average of nine months out of every year. Nobody can blame them for wanting to go somewhere else.

So, how did this album sound? Pretty awesome, actually. It did far better than its predecessor, commercially. Getting Away with Murder debuted at number seventeen on the Billboard chart, selling 17,000 copies in its first week. Less than half of what Lovehatetragedy sold on release. However, the album climbed steadily up the chart, being certified platinum in November of the same year. The album’s success is due mostly to the popularity of its singles — the title track, “Scars,” and “Take Me.” It remains the band’s second best-selling album to this day, after Infest.

The title track was the best choice for lead single. The band played it live before the album’s release, and the fans seemed to love it. As did I. It’s one of their catchiest songs, and survives in my playlists to this day.

“I wrote it so you can take it in different ways,” Shaddix explained to MTV News of the song’s room for interpretation. “It can be about when you’re doing some shit behind some people in your life’s backs and they don’t know about it but it makes you feel like shit, which I’ve done. But it can also be about what’s going on right now in the political world [in the Middle East], or about these big, huge corporations who are so corrupt.”

This makes for an interesting reversal, to say the least. As is the tendency of many nu-metal frontmen, previous songs by the band saw Shaddix as the victim of various wrongdoings. This time, he was the perpetrator. The philosopher Nassim Taleb once said, “You remember the insults you received far more than those you gave.” Of course, there are many versions of that saying with as many contexts, but in the case of this single, Shaddix seems to be more self-aware than most people in nu-metal (or most people in entertainment as a whole, for that matter).

“‘Getting Away with Murder’ is really the song that defines this record,” Buckner enthused in a behind-the-scenes video. “That’s us pushing ourselves to take it somewhere new. … It just makes you want to get away with murder, just run out there and have a good time.”

Thankfully nobody died at the hands of the band, and the title track was a success, but it was “Scars” that really elevated the album into the stratosphere and defined its legacy. If not for anything else, I will remember it for the line, “I can’t help you fix yourself, but at least I can say I tried.”

“I was out on the road, and I ran into a friend that I know from a long time ago,” Shaddix said. “I was in Vegas. He was having a hard time, and I’m the kind of person that carries the weight of the world on my shoulders. If someone around me is having a bad day, I’m having a bad day instantly, and this song’s just that breaking point of ‘I can’t help you fix yourself, but at least I can say I tried.’ It drove me to the point, that night, I just flipped out and got in a fight with a trash can. It’s kinda funny, I ended up in hospital with eleven staples in my head. That song was stemmed from a really emotional night in Vegas.”

You can laugh at the trash can fight if you want; I don’t think Shaddix would care. But “Scars” really gets deep into something I’ve felt for a long time but struggled to put into words until now. I can’t say I’m someone who carries the weight of the world on their shoulders. I tend to just plod along and help people when I see an opportunity. As I’ve progressed through my education and career as a teacher, I have helped others with resumes, cover letters, key selection criteria and uni applications, mostly. This started as a glorified hobby, but eventually became a side hustle. I’ve helped a lot of friends with a lot applications and letters for various things, and I used to do it for free or for very little (a cup of coffee, for instance). I didn’t charge because I liked doing it. It felt good, and I know what it’s like to feel lost, crawling around while everyone around you seems to know what they’re doing. That feeling sucks, so I want to help those in similar situations the best I can.

When it works, good things happen and people go places.

Then there are times when it doesn’t work.

Story time: Years ago, I was helping a friend who was looking for work. I’m going to call him “Jimmy,” because he was essentially a facsimile of Michael’s son in Grand Theft Auto V. If you know that game and the character, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about: a lazy, entitled millennial, smoking weed and playing video games all day, resentful of his parents, strained relationships with his family members at best. Super nice guy to his friends and fun to hang out with, but had a defeatist mindset when it came to doing anything with his life. But even though Jimmy was in this funk, there was a part of him that wanted to learn and grow. He was sincere. He wasn’t getting any younger, and he knew it. So, when he approached me for help with his resume and cover letter, I was happy to sit down and guide him through the process.

You know that saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”? While GTAV‘s Jimmy started to mature, grow, and trust his family more, mine did not. He understood his situation in principle, but actually taking action simply didn’t work for him in practice. The part of him that wanted to grow couldn’t be reconciled with his defeatist mindset. He would ask for advice about specific things. I gave him my answers, but often my advice was not what he wanted to hear, and he’d start to argue. Almost every decision he was making was wrong. I would see where he was going wrong, and respectfully try to point out how and why. And, what to do instead. Jimmy did not listen. He was still thinking like that kid who spent his days in front of the screen, and his job search basically hit a wall. I wished him luck and called it quits.

What I learned from this little saga is that it’s not a wise strategy to try and push someone to wake up. That was my mistake. I can assist people in specific tasks and processes, but I cannot make decisions for them. That’s their call. My mistake with Jimmy and disservice to him was exactly that: me trying to make the call for him. Hopefully, he and I both learned something from all of it.

“People might not be able to change, but we can,” Ryan Holiday says. “You might not be able to get through to your parents or your boss or those nasty commenters on social media, but you can certainly get through to yourself.”

Since that time, when helping people, I’ve made two changes. First, I’ve tried keep my focus on the writing of resumes, cover letters, and selection criteria, leaving the rest up to the person. Second, I’ve started charging for advice and document-writing. Sounds cold and transactional, but by raising the barrier for entry, I’ve seen a drastic change in the behavioural standards of those who come to me for advice. They know my time has value and act accordingly. I make my expectations known and make sure they get their money’s worth. Both parties benefit, and my time is well spent.

Anyway, enough of that and back to Papa Roach. “Take Me” was the third and final single from the album. It didn’t make the same splash as its predecessors, but it did enjoy some time on the Billboard Alternative and Mainstream Rock charts, and it flows nicely as another one of the band’s tracks that’s more straight ahead rock in style. No raps on this album, remember.

Getting Away with Murder also yielded some other fan favourites beyond just the singles. “Blood (Empty Promises)” was featured on the Saw II soundtrack. “Not Listening” appeared in several video games and was used in the trailer for Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Papa Roach spent all of 2004 and 2005 promoting Getting Away with Murder, touring across the United States and Europe, alongside the likes of Dead Poetic, Trust Company, Chronic Future, Skindred, 311, and Unwritten Law. Around this time, the band released a digital EP, Rolling Stone Original, their first to be available in digital format only. They also released their first live DVD, Papa Roach: Live and Murderous in Chicago. Featuring the band’s set at the Vic Theater in Chicago, the disc also had some bonus material, including all the band’s music videos at the time.

Getting Away with Murder is well worth a listen, for more than just the singles. In a time when the hard rock and metal scenes were changing, Papa Roach managed to break away from the trends of the day and really establish themselves as career artists. And it holds up. Get it for the title track and “Scars,” keep it for everything else, and pretend the rest of 2004 and its accompanying iPod ads didn’t happen.