Review Summary: out of the ideas*
The problem with this album: everything. Okay, let’s turn down the oven quick. There’s nothing wrong with pop when done right, and Escape the Fate are at least slick sounding with compressed production tactics and decent singing. At least, when the singer doesn’t sound obnoxious, like Lostprophets have returned. What else do they got? Well, nothing special.
Here’s the actual issue: they’re fakers. They want to be taken seriously in both metal and pop directions, but can’t be bothered to do anything more than pop rock so ancient sounding that I swear the album time warps its listener. This is radio material so safely baked and wrapped as to appeal to children, but their audience has grown up. To keep things interesting, they introduce noodling guitars occasionally that showcase the aggression of an ant. If this is metal I’m spaghettimachine.
Escape the Fate want to try it all, but they forget to have fun with it. This type of fun is Hedley at its best, which is no compliment and not fun. At points, the singer has a voice that makes you wanna hire Ursula to steal their voice box. The band has squeaky clean melodies, produced like putting make-up on a clown. However, you are the clown if you listen to this expecting greatness. No amount of obsessive production can hide lifeless tunes devoid of passion in art, creativity, etc. This is a mainstream sellout album designed to cater to the masses in a 30 Seconds To Mars kind of way.
In conclusion, if you enjoy tunes designed for insta radio playing you will enjoy this. If you still are a super fan of Hoobastank you might enjoy this. Everyone else, please stay away and sink your teeth into something that won’t rot your teeth. You have been warned.
