Review Summary: Escaping mediocrity.
Throughout the entire Craig Mabbitt era of Escape The Fate’s long and messy history, the band has struggled to put out a consistently great album. That’s not to say they don’t have the talent to produce bangers, as even their weakest efforts feature a few high-quality tracks.
Ungrateful has its title track,
Chemical Warfare has
Lightning Strike,
Hate Me has
Just A Memory, and their self-titled release has
Prepare Your Weapon. None of these albums are ones I would highly recommend in their entirety, but the highlighted songs are all stellar in their own right. Against all odds, Escape The Fate has finally bucked that pesky trend nearly two decades into the Mabbitt era;
The Last Goodbye is hands down the best, most consistent release the band has put forth with Mabbitt on lead vocals. It’s not perfect, but the creativity and overall high level of musicianship on the album are a welcome surprise to those out there (like me) who had written off the band to some extent and assumed their peak had long passed.
Upon my first listen of
The Last Goodbye, what immediately stood out to me was the impressive guitar work from Matti Hoffman. Though this isn’t technically the first record he’s contributed to, it feels like this is the first time the band has fully leaned on his talents to contribute memorable riffs and absolutely killer guitar solos. The title track, which opens the album, showcases his guitar prowess right away, and other songs like
Bedroom Wall and
Remedy of Numbness are also highlights on the album due in large part to Hoffman’s playing. Speaking of
Bedroom Wall, I need to give the band some well-deserved flowers for this track; it’s an incredibly gutsy, macabre song with an almost polka feel to it (akin to
Mama by My Chemical Romance) that eventually bursts into one of the catchiest choruses on the entire album. The lyrics can be slightly cringey at times, but the song ebbs and flows so well that, frankly, I didn’t even care. Really, the same could be said about other songs on
The Last Goodbye, such as
Comatose and
Idle Worship. Neither track has lyrics I would consider poetic or meaningful, but their occasional lyrical gaffes never weigh the songs down.
It shouldn’t be (and isn’t) surprising to see Escape The Fate churn out some great songs, but this is Escape The Fate after all, and as I said before, a handful of noteworthy tracks doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of the album will be worth listening to…right? Surprisingly, that couldn’t be further from the case on
The Last Goodbye. Even if the style and tone vary considerably from track to track, the album’s flow is strong and the quality never meaningfully dips. That’s not to say every song is worthy of an A+, but there aren’t any songs in the D or F range either – which is something that cannot be said about, frankly, any of their albums to date. When the weakest track on your album is still one I have nice things to say about, you’ve clearly done something right.
The Last Goodbye is an incredibly welcome surprise. It’s by no means a classic, nor does it reinvent hard rock or metalcore, but it’s a blast throughout its roughly 50-minute runtime. There are things I could nitpick here and there, but none would meaningfully detract from what is easily Escape The Fate’s finest moment in years. For the first time in a very long time, I’m happy to recommend an Escape The Fate album to any and all who are willing to give it a shot.
4 out of 5
