Papa Roach

In 1933, oil heiress Daisy Canfield was on her way home from a party when her car veered off a Mulholland Drive cliff, plummeting 300 feet and instantly killing the wife of silent movie star Antonio Moreno. In the decades that followed, the couple’s 14-bedroom Hollywood Hills estate would see time as a school for girls, then a convent before falling into disrepair, later being devastated by a 1987 earthquake. Born again more than a decade later, the renovated mansion has served as a recording studio for the likes of H.I.M. and Gwen Stefani, and recently hosted television’s “Rock Star” reality series.

It was between seasons of “Rock Star” that Papa Roach were tenants of the historic property, writing and recording the songs that comprise The Paramour Sessions. “We chose to move into the Paramour so we could focus on music and not have to deal with and be affected by the outside world,” says Papa Roach drummer Dave Buckner. Little did the band realize the impact that the house would actually have.

The first single “…To Be Loved” opens the album with a down-tuned litany that harkens back to Papa Roach’s genre-jumping roots, but quickly explodes into a rock and roll maelstrom more in line with their previous release, the critically acclaimed and platinum-selling Getting Away With Murder. Arena rock crashes head-on with punk attitude and contagious, sing-along choruses, setting the bar early for the most infectious P-Roach album to date: No small statement, considering that Papa Roach have already sold more than 10 million albums, establishing themselves as one of the most successful rock bands in the world.

Don’t get too focused on the allusion of a pop mindset, as The Paramour Sessions proved a dark and haunting chapter in Papa Roach history. “We were in a pretty volatile state when we made this record, because a lot of us were going through a lot of personal shit,” says Shaddix. “There’s love on this album, there’s fucking violence on the record, there’s sex, drugs and rock and roll, there’s fear, there’s fucking strength… Every experience we could experience as a group of people, we experienced in that house. We cried, we fought, there were sleepless nights, and we kind of got scared of who we were for a while there. But crazy as it was, coming out on the other side of making the record, I think getting lost in ourselves was the best thing that we could have done. Towards the end of it, we knew we had to get out of that place or we’d go fucking crazy.”

Make no mistake, there were no shortage of crazy moments captured at Paramour. From the four-to-the-floor, full frontal assault of “Alive” and the fast and furious frenzy of “Crash,” to the ambient undertow of “Forever” and the lush landscape and colossal choruses of “The World Around You,” and through the epic orchestration of closing track “Roses On My Grave,” the 13 tracks flow with an inspired energy and linger with a haunting aftertaste.

“In the early days, I would obsess and worry about making our mark on rock music, but not anymore,” concludes Buckner. “In fact, I’m not sure that’s even a worthy concern… We rock today, and that’s what’s cool.”