The Connection

The Connection is the seventh studio album by American rock band Papa Roach. It was released on October 2, 2012, through Eleven Seven Music. The album was produced by Sixx:A.M. vocalist James Michael, who co-produced the band's previous full-length album Metamorphosis, and Goldfinger vocalist John Feldmann. The first single, "Still Swingin'", was released on July 24, 2012. A lyric video to the song "Before I Die" was released on Papa Roach's YouTube channel on November 15, 2012. On November 19, 2012, The Connection was released as a vinyl record, making it the first Papa Roach album to be released in that format. The album features several songs with electronic influences. Some tracks on the album feature a return to the nu metal style rapping vocals of the band's early releases. Background Jacoby Shaddix has described the album as a "rediscovery of the basic elements of Papa Roach." He states: "We kind of went back and looked at the history of our band and really thought about… Creatively, what evolutions have we gone through? When we came in, it was, like, metal and hip-hop and nu-metal, and then we kind of got more into straight-ahead rock and then we added pop elements to our band. So this record just encompasses everything we’ve done from the beginning to where we are currently as a band; it just kind of connects the dots of all the elements of our sound over the years." "There's some hip-hop, more keyboards than before, sound loops, textures—it's dynamic, diverse and vulnerable. That is Papa Roach. We have never sounded better," said Shaddix.