PAPA ROACH: 'A Lot Of The Newer Artists Are Influenced By Nu Metal And Emo Music'

In a new interview with MoreCore.TV conducted at this past weekend's Rock Am Ring festival in Nürburgring, Germany, PAPA ROACH bassist Tobin Esperance and guitarist Jerry Horton spoke about their appearance at last month's Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, which was described as the inaugural alternative and nu-metal event.

"I think it's cool," Tobin said. "I think it's great. Everyone's having fun. A lot of the newer artists are influenced by this era of nu metal and emo music. So it's all coming back around again, which is great for a band like us. And we can celebrate that time and that music. And we got to see a lot of our old friends. I think it was cool."

Jerry concurred, saying: "It was cool. I mean, there was 85 thousand people, so obviously people want to see it. It was a lot of fun."

Nu metal thrived during the remarkable decade from 1994 to 2004 when mainstream charts, magazines, radio and TV were all taken over by a host of diverse artists performing their own brands of hard rock, hip-hop and heavy metal.

Essentially a fusion of rap and alternative rock (arguably born out of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE),nu metal inexplicably swept the airwaves and peaked for a brief period, with Gregory Heaney of AllMusic describing the genre as "one of metal's more unfortunate pushes into the mainstream." Along the way, several bands associated with nu metal, including KORN, DEFTONES and SLIPKNOT, took a somewhat defensive stance against being labeled as such. Even those less apologetic nu metal groups eventually changed their sound, effectively disowning the genre that they helped pioneer.

PAPA ROACH recently announced the digital deluxe edition of the band's eleventh studio album "Ego Trip", and the long-awaited release date of "Ego Trip" standard edition on vinyl. The 20-track digital deluxe release features remixed versions of songs from the original record, as well as new music.

An album that sprouted almost by mistake in the throes of a global lockdown, "Ego Trip"'s seeds were planted when the quartet entered a COVID-secure mansion in Temecula, California in the summer of 2020. What started as an escape and an exercise in keeping the creative juices flowing, in a world that had completely ground to a halt, quickly grew into something bigger.

PAPA ROACH are two-time Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling leaders in alternative hard rock music, who in 2020 celebrated the 20th anniversary of their iconic album "Infest".