Review Summary: Did somebody say fail?
I liked this album the first time I heard it, back when it was called “Lies for the Liars” and that wasn’t very good anyway. To be honest there isn’t a lot of originality in today’s popular music scene. Whether it’s pop-punk, pop-core or mall-metal, there is little to no variation or substance in the music you’ll find. This leads me to; Escape the Fate. In case you aren’t familiar Escape the Fate is a band who has had its fair share of media spotlight in its short existence. In between their vocalist going to jail and one of their guitarists leaving, many would’ve called it quits and many people would have wanted them to call it quits. Instead they decided to recruit a new vocalist; Craig Mabbit more commonly known as the Blessthefall guy.
So let’s take a look at their newest album “This War is Ours”. There are a few things expected of an album; the most obvious is that it should be a single piece of work made up of multiple parts that stand on their own and flow well at the same time, albums are also supposed to hold the listener’s attention for their duration, but this particular album has an extra task to achieve. Whenever a band drops its front man the follow up needs to show that former member how much better the band is without them. This album fails in all three of these areas.
So first things first the new member Craig Mabbit is he good, bad, average? Well, his vocals aren’t particularly impressive but when you consider the audience of 14 year olds he’s trying to reach it’s probably the most outstanding performance they’ve ever heard. Nowhere is his vocal capability demonstrated better then lead single; “The Flood” containing what is easily the best demonstration of his “skills” (Screaming, Growling, and Singing). But it still isn’t fantastic and as with his predecessor you’ll find his voice becomes very annoying very quickly. Lyrically, he’s no better than Radke, his lyrics aren’t as Glam Metal inspired but they aren’t anything groundbreaking or even remotely thought provoking.
With the slight improvement in vocals you might be wondering if there are any other steps forward. There are, but they aren’t major. Of note is the much more audible bass, that was somewhat absent from earlier work. That being said Max Green is not a good bassist by any stretch of the imagination and his fills are both uninspired and inane.
The guitar work hasn’t changed a lot from their last album which is a good thing and a bad thing, on the one-hand a single guitarist replicating the performance of two individual guitarists is noteworthy, but when the guitar works is still outstandingly bland it doesn’t help much. The title track provides what is easily the best guitar performance on the album demonstrating a level of skill that is absent from the majority of the album.
The drumming is standard pop-punk fare nothing out of the ordinary, the occasional fill can be impressive but nothing stands out as anything more than average. The album isn’t all bad though, several songs are catchy most notably “The Flood” and “This War is Ours (The Guillotine II)” which both provide memorable choruses that will stay in your head for days.
One of the more pathetic parts of this album is the abysmal lyrics. In between lines such as;
You all stop and stare, I don't need your pity
and;
Ashley baby you make me feel so alive, I've got purpose once again. Yeah, Yeah.
You just know you're in for a treat. The lyrics to every song on this album are so ridiculous even Brett Michaels would find them cheesy. In fact lyrcisim is the biggest fault on the entire album. Often I don't judge bands by lyrics because certain vocalists can make up for it with an outstanding performance (Jay Forrest-Hopesfall) but Escape the Fate seem to have procured their lyrics straight from a bargain bin at K-Mart.
As a whole the album fails, epically. Whether it’s the Panic at the Disco-esque “It’s Just Me”, the numerous songs that sound like The Used; “On To The Next One”, “Something” or the sleep inducing “Ashley” in fact, with the exception of the lead single and the title track, the entire album forms a wall of; overused effect-laden guitars, uninspired drumming, boring bass work and mediocre vocals that drags on for just over half an hour. Lyrically the album is comparable to an Aaron Seltzer comedy, the same over-used ideas and themes about failed relationships, battles, halo 2, etc.
Overall; Escape the Fate has produced a mediocre follow up. If you liked the last album you’ll probably like this album. If you didn’t like it chances are you won’t like this.
Recommended Tracks:
The Flood
This War is Ours (Guillotine II)
