It’s nice to see that the spirits of 1987 and 2005 live on. On their third album, Escape The Fate (entirely unironically) combine the attitude of 80’s hair metal with mid-2000’s screamo/emo and a modern metal sensibility. That third element is what makes most of this album boring and unmemorable, and stops it from achieving greatness.
ETF’s debut album, Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, (made with original vocalist Ronnie Radke) was a great album, and they’ve never achieved those heights since then. 2008’s This War Is Ours was simply terrible, with few redeeming features (yet it inexplicably raised the band’s profile). Therefore it wasn’t that hard to improve on it, and Escape The Fate does just that with flying colours, even though this isn’t a great album by any means. It starts off with an interesting intro, and then transitions into ‘Massacre’, one of the most blatant ripoffs in recent years. The song is almost a complete xerox of Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘Chelsea Smile’. Thankfully, the rest of the album sounds more like Escape The Fate themselves. They continue the defining sound they began on This War Is Ours, albeit in improved form. Most of the songs have catchy choruses, big guitar solos, and end up sounding mostly the same so it’s hard to find standouts. That’s just until you reach the end of the album. The final two songs are by far the best on this album. ‘World Around Me’ is unashamedly a power ballad, and is all the better for it. The chorus is very memorable, and the song is just well-written in general. It transitions into ‘The Aftermath (The Guillotine III). ETF have included an installment into their ‘Guillotine’ series on every album, and each time it has been one of the best songs on each album. This time is no exception. It’s about the only time they embrace their Dying Is Your Latest Fashion roots. It’s just great screamo. Speaking of screamo, yes, this album is very outdated sounding. It sounds like it should have been made in 2005, but I guess 13-year old emo girls’ music tastes haven’t changed THAT much in 5 years, so they’ll probably lap it up. Vocals-wise though, is where this album shows the most improvement, and Craig Mabbitt has never sounded so good. He’s really come into his own. It makes you wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t left blessthefall or The Word Alive.
On their major-label debut, Escape The Fate show signs of returning to their former glory, but they don’t really seem like they want to. They’re just content with their pop-metal that sounds like it belongs on the shelf with Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance 5 years ago.
-Scott Kendall
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