Review Summary: Well first of all I would like to thank ETF for posting this album on their Myspace before its release. You sure saved me ten bucks. Welcome to a half and hour or so of misery.
The first thing I would like to say is: the only reason I did not give this album a 1 is because of one song, This War is Ours; better known as The Guillotine Part II. That song was good enough to bump the whole album up one point, but overall This War Is Ours is a complete failure from a seemingly promising band.
Track 1: We Wont Back Down 4/5
We Wont Back Down was actually a decent start to this pitiful excuse for an album. I do find the first line slightly ironic "We will burn your cities" considering Slipknot's first song of their new album All Hope Is Gone states the same thing. With all this talk of burning cities, I fear America may be at risk. Aside from that, the track flowed together well sporting above-average guitar playing from Bryan Money. The drums are nothing special, but then again, they never will be considering the drummer. At this point in time, you might actually find Craig Mabbit's vocals to be enjoyable, which it is, but after a while the tones in his voice will start to get on your nerves.
Track 2: On To the Next One 2.5/5
It starts off with an edgy, twisting guitar tone that bleeds off into more of Craig's pitchy singing. Then in leads into the chorus. This song starts to seem a little awkward from this point on. The chorus has a totally different mood than that of the intro. They even throw in a solo that blends in with the guitar intro. I just don’t think they tried very hard to make this song flow.
Track 3: Ashley 1/5
The beginning of this song sort of sounds like a re-hash or ETF's older song Not Good Enough For Truth In Cliché, or at least it does to me. It seems to me that the lead singers of many punk bands will write a song about some girl that has affected them deeply such as Helena, or Emily, and most of the time they do it pretty well. Ashley just seems like ETF's attempt at mainstream "punk" that is so popular.
Track 4: Something 1/5
One of the things that is starting to get on my nerves is how quiet the guitar is. It always comes off as just background noise, drowned out by mediocre drumming and obnoxious whiney vocals. This song also seems to have adapted a sort of mainstream pop-punk flavor.
Track 5: The Flood 4/5
At last, a break. The most memorable part of this song is probably the opening guitar riff. It’s interesting enough to make me want to listen to it. I also appreciate the blending of the screams and growls into the song. It lets all of us reminisce a little about this band's better days, back when ETF was at least a little unique. Lyrically, it’s a little better than their previous efforts. A good listen.
Track 6: Let It Go 2/5
This album seems based on a few good songs like "We Wont Back Down", "The Flood", and "This War Is Ours", and other than that it is surrounded my boring, uninspiring filler tracks. "Let It Go" is just another example of this. Aside from being mostly boring, Bryan Money throws in a short, but good solo that flows neatly with the rest of the song.
Track 7: You Are So Beautiful 1.5/5
Unfortunately, this album seems based around a troubled relationship that the Craig just wont let go. The lyrics are kind of confusing making statements like "You are another one of my mistakes" and then later saying "You are so beautiful." I cant help being a little confused. The angry sounding guitar riffs in the beginning seem rather misleading until about half way through, when there is a short interlude filled with Craig screaming "You lied to me!" played against the same pissed off guitar from earlier. As seen in "On to the next one" this song does not flow together very smoothly, all the instruments seem to be clashing together awkwardly.
Track 8: This War Is Ours 5/5
Finally, what I’ve been waiting for. This track takes off with a fast, high pitched solo that precedes a cacophony of violent screaming. The drums take it up a notch for a change, and the angry, growly guitar continues on as Craig tears through a great epic chorus and some of his best screaming. Then it cuts out for a moment for a nice acoustic interlude with some good melody from Bryan in the background. Then it picks up again and soars into the solo, which is actually pretty good. The only disappointing thing is the failed replication of Radke's guttural growls at the end of the Guillotine I. At least Craig tried. Well you lost the war, but you
definitely won this battle.
Track 9: 10 Miles Wide 3.5/5
This song starts with a nice, edgy creeping guitar riff, and leads off into some scary sounding vocals that recruit some help from BuckCherry's Josh Todd. They actually do a decent job of this song if you exclude the use of the F-word which is a first for Escape the Fate. Good chorus, well planned vocals, (which i assume were somewhat modified by Josh Todd)
and a catchy chorus. . It actually sounds sort of like a combination of Atreyu's "Falling Down" and "Lose It." Very interesting, but not long enough to be satisfying.
Track 10: Harder Than You Know 1/5
This song begins rather differently with a slow, soft acoustic melody that you might hear if you had front row seats at an American Idol concert. When the drums come in, and blend in with the other instruments, it almost sounds like something you might hear at church. Considering that this is Escape the Fate, not the church choir, this must be the most awful song on this album.
Track 11: It’s Just Me 4.5/5
It almost seems as if this is Escape the Fate's way of apologizing for the rest of the album. This song starts off with a provoking, disturbing guitar and some twisted sounding vocals. Although some might find his voice obnoxious, it appealed to me it a strange way. I liked the creepy chorus backed with some flaring brass instrumentals. Altogether it packs a nasty, disturbing exotic tone that ends this horrible album rather well. However, the audio clip at the end is a little creepy, seeing how it combines Craig’s drunken rambling with the laughter of a small girl and carnival noises. Weird....
Well that’s it, and I tried to cut out all the sadistic crap I had earlier.
Oh and to Atavan Halen, I apologize for the review. I hope this is better.
