Review Summary: This War Is Ours falls flat on its back.
On their second studio "effort" (I put this in quotes for a reason),
Escape the Fate provide us with an album that both sucks and, in a way, is more cohesive than their first album.
On "We Won't Back Down," the band displays what would be expected of them two years earlier albeit with Craig on vox instead of Ronnie. When I first heard this, I thought the entire album would be like this.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
After the glory of "We Won't Back Down" has ended, a Used-style guitar part starts the song "On To The Next One," which is basically a stereotypical emo song with some horns thrown in on the chorus. This is where the record first shows signs of being terrible.
On the third track "Ashley," the band starts to sound like The Cab, or at least what I've heard from them. I hated this song and I still do hate it with a fiery passion, mostly because when I picked this up I thought it would be a decent CD. "Something" manages to sound close to the same as its predecessor, though slightly better do to its audible bass and not quite as ridiculous chorus. "The Flood" is basically a "We Won't Back Down" part 2, but with more screaming and also some poppier moments in the chorus of the song.
"Let It Go" and "You Are So Beautiful" follow the same code of conduct as tracks 3 and 4, though "Beautiful" manages to be even worse than "Ashley," mostly due to the grammatical error in the chorus... "You are so beautiful, you are the kind of the kind of girl that has the chemicals that
makesme fall in love."
After two bad and uninspired songs in a row, Escape the Fate get back on their feet with the title track (or the Guillotine Part II), which is hands down the best song on the album. If only they could duplicate its glory on the other songs.
The next song, "Ten Miles Wide," really ends up sounding like a Buckcherry song because of Josh Todd's guest appearance on it. Overall though, an okay hard rock song.
"Harder Than You Know" sounds like it was written by some no-name who writes for Disney movies, and is perhaps the most terrible song on this record. Need I say any more?
Last but not least comes "It's Just Me," which really seems like Ludo were forced to write the song for the band. It's not anything like the rest of the album and the band plays quite well on this song. It stands out and is pretty good, save for the carousel ride sounds at the end and Craig crying and mumbling.
Overall, this album has its moments but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone coming from any musical taste. If you must, download "We Won't Back Down," "The Flood," "This War Is Ours" and maybe "10 Miles Wide."
Final Score:
2/5
