The YouTube channel Rocked is, if anything, savvy & smart with marketing. When he does a review on Trapt, he does the only album people care ’bout, their self-titled with the goofy album cover o’ some honkey mowing his lawn & the only song people seem to remember from Trapt, “Headstrong”; I, howe’er, force myself to suffer by reviewing not that, but this album, Only Through the Pain, not because it makes a funny title to twist as an insult gainst Trapt, but because I actually checked this album out from the library as a teen & actually heard its lead single, “Who’s Going Home with You Tonight?”, on the radio. Yes, Trapt did have mo’ singles ( for 1, their self-titled had “Still Frame”, which I’m surprised was forgotten so easily, as I recall it being just as prominent as “Headstrong” back when people still had some tolerance for this band ).

Seeing the change in the public perception for Trapt, from then to now, has been very strange. 1 complaint I have ’bout Rocked’s review o’ their self-titled is that it’s clearly tinted with the rancid stench o’ Trapt’s current edgelord reputation thanks to their lead singer, Chris Brown, — no, not that other notorious 1; this 1’s a cracker — saying stupid degenerate shit on the platform formerly known as Twitter to get attention again, with Rocked repeatedly mocking Trapt for trying to be mock-edgy. But as someone who lived thru that time, I want to clear the record: nobody thought Trapt was edgy back in the day. If anything, Trapt were 1 o’ the least offensive nu-metal bands out there. If you had told me Trapt was a ✝-rock band back then, I would’ve believed you. Look @ that album cover above: ¿notice what’s missing? A parental advisory sticker. Papa Roach had mo’ fucking street cred than these dweeds. Breaking Benjamin was mo’ edgy. So Trapt coming back into the spotlight again due to their lead singer expressing support for adult women teachers raping young boys & being a literal white supremacist ( which he lies ’bout, ’cause white supremacists are too bitchmade to stand by their own s’posed principles ) was crazy to hear.

Like with Disturbed & IDF Draiman, I will try to focus on critiquing this album instead o’ just hammering on what a pedophile the lead singer is, unless I encounter a particularly funny relevant jab I can’t ignore. It’s not as if this album won’t have its own elements to mock.

1. Wasteland

I began to sweat as the boredom sunk is as this song played, wondering if I’d have anything to say & wondering what I was doing with my limited time on this earth writing ’bout a god damn Trapt album in the year of our Luigi 2026, only to get my salvation from the prechorus & chorus’s ridiculous lyrics, which, like I would do as a cringe teen writing my own songs, just cobble together stock phrases that rhyme:

get off my back
don’t attack
¿so what if i fell off the tracks?
your master plan
don’t understand
i’d rather live in my own wasteland

This is basically the rock equivalent to “I’m a lyrical spherical miracle”.

Also, Chris Brown’s voice sounds particularly creaky on this song for some reason. Chris ne’er had a great voice, — & I’m not just saying that ’cause he’s a pedophile; ’twas always a fact — but ne’er this bad. I hope this isn’t consistent thruout this record. I also don’t like this song’s squeaky guitars. & “Wasteland” is a good title for this sound, as this song sounds muffled as hell. Hope bad production is also not a pattern for this album, tho I doubt it won’t be, given how many otherwise good nu-metal albums have bad production.

Grade: D

2. Who’s Going Home With You Tonight?

OK, we still have the muffled production & a bit o’ the squeaky guitars in the background, but Chris’s vocals sound much better & I actually like the bouncy rhythm o’ the prechorus. The lyrics are still trash, tho: we have mo’ stock phrases there just to rhyme, like “have you crossed the line”, & just downright dumb lines, like, “¿was it real or am i just part of your collection?”. I do get a bit o’ giddy realizing that this song is essentially a fuck boy’s lament, with the song title being the protagonist asking who’s cucking him tonight. The lyrics are so vague that it’s hard to tell if the other is a cheating girlfriend, someone the protagonist broke up with who managed to find another partner, or someone the protagonist had a 1-night-stand with, which is to say, I can’t tell if I should feel sorry for the protagonist or laugh @ him for being an entitled loser.

Grade: C

Music Video

The music video is lazy: it’s just alternating ’tween the band jamming in front o’ a crowd & scenes o’ a generic man & generic woman generically loving each other. Halfway thru what I think is the woman in those scenes, which are also showing on a TV, tries to leave — which is a pretty funny unintentional self-own on the band’s part — but gets grabbed by some dude, & then she shakes him off & leaves. I don’t know what’s going on & I don’t care, either.

Grade: D

3. Contagious

O, yeah, I remember this song, too. It has a decently catchy pre-chorus & chorus, tho the lyrics edge dangerously close to sounding like whiteboy reggae rap singing. The production still sounds muffled. I’m just going to have to get used to that.

Lyrically, this song is your standard metaphorical love song: “my love for you is so infectious, it’s like a disease, ooo”. Honestly, it just reminds me how much better is Matchbox Twenty’s “Disease”, not the least ’cause in that song we get the amazing vocals from the Santana “Smooth” singer rather than Chris Brown’s nasally voice. We get more words chosen just so we can keep rhyming: “connection”, “attention”, “tension”. It’s not nearly as bad as “Wasteland”, howe’er.

I find it interesting that this song & “Wasteland” both have this kind o’ polluted theme to them. It’s too bad Trapt is way too light a band to do that well &, spoiler, no other songs have this.

Grade: C

4. Black Rose

O, great: we start with repetitive twinkling strings followed by Chris’s creaky voice. & with a title like “Black Rose”, I know I’m in for a deep song that will tug @ my heartstrings. We get such great metaphors: see, this girl is like a black rose, hiding “where the sun could never go”, — an awkward phrasing to ensure we can end the line with the present tense “go” that rhymes with the other lines, rather than a mo’ natural “where the sun never went” or “where the sun never shined” — & now the protagonist “couldn’t find a way to help [her] grow”. As I mentioned in my review o’ Crossfade’s “Colors”, I don’t like these songs o’ some smug dudebro protagonist feeling sorry for some emo girl who’s just so troubled. Leave her alone: let her get some privacy in the shade. Also, the lyrics don’t do any mo’ with this metaphor than the lines I mentioned; most lines are just generic vague phrases like, “but you never had the faith” or “to take away the pain”. Snore.

Grade: D

5. Ready When You Are

This is the same shit as “Black Rose” & “Who’s Going Home With You Tonight?”: mo’ vague relationship misunderstandings that’s not e’en dramatic ’nough to care ’bout.

This song is a potent blend o’ bad lyrics & bad singing: you have the cheesy way Chris sings the opening, “¿are you having trouble keeping up?” like he’s in a kids show, the weirdly stilted & loud way he says “OPEN UP” @ the end o’ “you’re too confused to open up”, & then the pre-chorus, which starts with, “another game of charades / ¿don’t you know everyone plays?”, & then veers completely, ending with, “don’t want to strangle this, so I’m holding back for now”. ¿Strangle what? I’m hoping not the woman. I’m just imagining the protagonist strangling his abstract frustration like Homer strangling Bart. I think the lyricist must’ve realized how melodramatic that line was, ’cause it’s immediately followed by, “calm down, don’t take it too far”. I should add that ’hind all this are hushed voices going, “ah ah ah”.

& to add to this, the music is mo’ repetitive twinkling strings. I find it so funny how Rocked portrayed Trapt as such edgelords — albeit childish ones — given how edgeless this album is. Again: the last band you’d expect to go crazy on Twitter.

Grade: F

6. Forget About the Rain

When I 1st heard the opening slow, quiet notes, I was already thinking, { not another boring slow song }, only to be jumpscared by a funky song o’ all things. ¿Why is Trapt trying to be funky? No, that’s illegal.

You can just guess what all the lyrics are from this title. ¿Why would I want to forget the rain? Rain is cool & nice. I love rain.

Grade: D

7. Cover Up

This song cockteases me with heavy bass & drums — albeit the bass sounds like it came from a SNES & the drums sound like utensils being shaken, they’re so compressed ­— only to get this lame twinkly music.

So far Trapt’s been all right with decently catchy choruses, but this song’s choruses are just annoying, loudly repeating phrases like “cover up, cover up” or “put the mask back on, put the mask back on”. The pre-chorus & chorus barely sound different.

& I am so sick o’ these melodramatic metaphors. Some woman who cheated, I guess — not only do I not know for sure what she did, the line, “all those rumors might end up being true”, implies she might not have e’en done anything @ all — “must have pulled the trigger” with “the gun in [her] hand still smoking”. & ’course we have the cliché imagery o’ this woman wearing a mask.

E’en worse, we have some terribly awkward phrasing, like, “the disguise is everlasting so long”. ¿Why the fuck are you applying an adverbial phrase to a noun?

Something I find really funny is when these vague songs make a big deal out o’ this person — ¡gasp! — lying. That’s against 1 o’ the 10 commandments, guys. Bitch, e’eryone lies: ¿who cares? I know it’s that she cheated; ¿but why not just say she cheated? ¿Do these lyricists think being vague is poetic? All we get from the use o’ this broad term is the possibility for me to interpret this protagonist’s deep anger to be ’cause this woman said she was busy when she wasn’t to get the Jehova’s Witness to go ’way. “Put on the mask, you phoney”.

Grade: F

8. Only One in Color

OK, I don’t give a shit ’bout this song’s music: it’s the most generic pop rock schlock e’er. We need to talk ’bout these lyrics.

The 1st half o’ the prechorus has this whimsical bullshit ’bout how he loves his Manic Pixie Dream Girl who thinks out loud when no one’s around — ¡so quirky! — but then you’re jumped with, “well I can dig my own graves now / but will you smile every time / i try to crawl my way out”. ¿What the fuck does that have to do with anything? ¿Is the woman smiling @ the protagonist trying to dig out o’ a grave s’posed to be romantic? But that’s OK, ’cause she’s “the only one in color”… whate’er that means.

Like all too many nu-metal lyrics, these lyrics oft feel mo’ like a jumble o’ trite phrases than any coherent idea. Verse 2 develops this hokey metaphor ’bout setting the mood & lighting up the room, only to randomly jump to “what I’ve given you you’ve given back”, which has no relevance, & then that’s followed with, “come on & take my hand”. Here’s I’ll write a Trapt song right now:

you always know what to say
my sunset on the bay
with that brave face
making me constantly pray

¿How is that any worse than what we have here? It’s maddening.

Grade: D

9. Wherever She Goes

Again, we start with decent music, but then when we get to the verse it’s that twinkling strings — I swear, the same fucking note thunked constantly — & weak singing.

Take your pick on which is mo’ annoying, the pre-chorus or chorus: the prechorus has Chris oozing as he sings, which is gross, & the chorus is the fast-paced repetition.

Also, this makes this the 5th song ’bout relationship angst. Literally e’ery song on this album is either “I love you very much” or “you hate me so much”.

Grade: F

10. Curiosity Kills

¿What the fuck are these $-store funk riffs in the verses with those stupid “do do do do do”s e’ery so oft?

That said, I’m kind o’ amazed that this song actually sticks relatively well to its theme, with metaphors o’ “digging too deep” & the opening image o’ “everyone turn your cameras on” tying into the theme that curiosity kills. This also goes farther than the vague “you hate me so much” theme with the specific topic o’ someone trying to hide their “dark side” from their significant other. I mean, this should be the base expectation o’ any lyricist & none o’ these metaphors or images or the theme itself are creative. This is basically an inferior “Demons” by Imagine Dragons — & imagine sucking so hard that Imagine Dragons are draggin’ their nuts ’cross your face musically.

Grade: D

11. The Last Tear

What’s amazing is that this song sucks hard & yet is significantly better than many o’ the other songs I’ve endured here. I could imagine a universe where there exists no other music & I actually find the guitar riffs — surprisingly not destroyed by this album’s incessant compression — & e’en the melodic singing in the pre-chorus pretty all right… but then the chorus come in & makes me want to vomit with how saccharine it is. Also, this is literally just “Black Rose” again.

Grade: D

Conclusion

Thank all that is good in the world that next month is October, which means we will almost certainly be listening to much mo’ interesting music. I was surprised by how much worse this album was than I expected. It says something when I wonder how the band who made “Headstrong” made these songs. I ne’er loved “Headstrong”, but that sounds like “War Pigs” compared to these songs.

Final Grade: D