Review Summary: New Life breathes literal new life into the band, and keeps them from becoming stale.
When they first started out, Modern Day Escape seemed doomed to either fail, or fade into obscurity. While their first record wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t significant enough to stand out from a sea of blatantly average albums of the genre, and ultimately was too boring to earn replay value. The band avoided both a sophomore slump, instead releasing a much-improved second album entitled Under The Gun. Gun was much stronger than the previous record, and it actually earned some staying power. New Life breathes literal new life into the band, and keeps them from becoming stale.
Overall, there’s a newfound sense of maturity on this record. The band members, especially Vegas(the vocalist), seem to realize now that, if they actually try, they can produce some enjoyable material. The group has also eased up on gimmicks: on Rats, they had over the top lyrics and boring deathcore tendencies, on Gun, they tried a little too hard lyrically again, and it always seemed like they were just trying to appeal to scene kids. This time around, MDE realizes they can reach more than the typical target audience of the genre, and therefore come off much more as a band than a scene idol.
James Vegas has heavily improved, both in versatility and enjoyability. The much-needed improvement of the guitarists is also a huge highlight, and they actually deliver solid performances throughout. This is the genre the band needs to stick with, as they do it very well. However, though both have occasional shining moments, the bassist and drummer need to step up a little more. Towards the middle of the album, there’s a slight bit of filler that can easily be skipped.
Lyrically, at times they’ve improved, at times they’ve stayed the same. “Control” and “Drugs” actually have some angsty, convicting lyrics, but cries of “Hell yeah!” and random f-words detract slightly from this highlight. Overall, this is the best release Modern Day Escape have unveiled. If you were a fan of MDE’s heavier edge, look to Under The Gun, as House of Rats can be skipped totally. But, if you’re content with a southern rock-tinged take on post-hardcore, consider New Life as your first choice.
