Escape The Fate - "Ungrateful" Review

Artist: Escape The Fate
Album: Ungrateful
Release Date: May 14th, 2013
Record Label: Eleven Seven Music

In May, Escape The Fate released their fourth studio effort, Ungrateful. The album is the third with Craig Mabbitt on vocals and the first to feature Michael Money on guitar and TJ Bell on bass. The lead single and title-track of the album was released three months prior, with a graphic video which sends a strong message about the need to stop the cycle of bullying and abuse, following in March. "You're Insane" was the second single to be released in April, and set up great anticipation for the album the following month.

I felt that "Ungrateful" was somewhat of a false lead-in. It was such a huge, loud anthem that I was expecting the rest of the album to be just as heavy, and I was kind of disappointed when that turned out to not be the case.

While the title track, for me, was undoubtedly the standout song of the album, there are definitely a few other tracks worth mentioning. The second track, "Until We Die", follows on from where "Ungrateful" left off with its gritty aggressiveness, while "Live Fast, Die Beautiful" takes us away from the metalcore sounds of the first two songs, and lends a more upbeat, maybe even pop-rock, vibe to the album.

"Forget About Me" is nothing to write home about, but it allows Craig Mabbitt to showcase his range with higher vocals in the chorus. The song features a rather generic metalcore breakdown that you'd probably expect to find somewhere in Asking Alexandria's arsenal. Definitely not a highlight for me.

Things pick up again with "You're Insane", with its catchy riffs and chorus, and just when I thought the album might return to the hard-hitting heaviness of the opening tracks, it all slows down. "Chemical Love" and "Picture Perfect" are the softer contributions to "Ungrateful", but neither is likely to go down in history as a memorable ballad or standout song for the artist.

"Risk It All" takes us back to the heavier side of things. Chunky, catchy riffs, hard-hitting drums and another anthemic, sing-along chorus make this one of the album's strongest songs. "Desire" continues in much the same vein and "One For the Money" is a track that will have you singing along to the chorus the first time listening. It's ridiculously catchy with melodies that are likely to be stuck in your head for a while, before "Fire It Up" wraps the album up nicely.

"Ungrateful" is loaded with heavy guitar riffs, strong bass lines, and catchy, sing-a-long choruses, as fans will have come to expect from the band in previous releases. Despite the problems the band has had with line-up changes, it's clear that they have come together as a unit and their chemistry with one another cannot be denied. Michael Money lends good rhythm to his brother, Monte's, guitar leadership, while Monte himself contributes some great solos. TJ Bell keeps the bass lines tight and in sync with the drumming technique of Robert Ortiz and Mabbitt belts his heart out from start to finish, whether he is screaming or singing cleanly, his performance is impressive and consistent throughout.

Overall, it's a solid album, however, I don't think it's anything ground-breaking that will force people to stand up and take notice if they haven't already. It's definitely not bad, and fans of the band will surely enjoy it if they have Mabbitt's previous work with the band. It's true to Escape The Fate's sound and they didn't take any unnecessary risks by pushing the boat out too far.

Standout Songs: "Ungrateful", "Until We Die", "You're Insane"

Honorable Mentions: "Risk It All", "One For the Money"
Rating:

To Mosh or Not to Mosh...

Firstly we would like to say thank you to the hundreds of people who have viewed our blog, liked us on Facebook or followed us on Twitter. We thought a few of you may be interested in what we have to say but we never expected this kind of response and support so quickly. Let's all work together and build this into a community as we first envisaged. As stated in the last post, we don't just want this to be us talking to you... We want YOU to get involved. Give us feedback, let us know what you want to see covered, send us your experiences etc.

Today, we are keen to explore the world of the mosh pit. This fiercely male dominated environment is traditionally unwelcoming of female presence and is seen as a hostile environment to enter by many women. Women in the mosh pit is frowned upon by a lot of people, due to the perceived violent nature of it, but should it be?

Joobs: "I myself love a good mosh pit. It's a place to truly let go and thrash it out with people who feel the same. I have never had a negative experience, although I haven't actually been in the middle of that many. It is pretty much guaranteed I will come out covered in bruises and - touch wood - free from other injuries. My experience as a whole has been a largely positive one with people helping each other up and, if you look like you're struggling, offering you a lift up to surf out of there. But, I have heard snippets of horror stories, and seen bad things happen like two girls during a Rammstein gig brought to tears by the crushing as the pit was forming. To be honest, I'm not at all small, and even I was lifted by the force of the crowd and carried backwards. From talking to people, they are either for or against women joining in the fun and there is no middle ground."

Leese: "I enjoy taking pictures and videos at gigs too much to spend too much time in the pit. I generally prefer to be on the outskirts of it. I have been in the thick of it once or twice, though, and had an absolute blast. The most memorable is probably when I went to see Mastodon a few years ago. The crowd was largely made up of big, bulky guys and I was the only chick who braved the pit, but there were no strange looks, nobody trying to stop me or avoid me – it was just fun. I have been to shows, though, where females have been prevented from entering the pit. It shouldn't be that way, in my opinion. Anybody going into a pit knows what they're getting themselves into and they know what to expect. They know they could get hurt and, male or female, they should be able to make their own choice on whether they want to risk it or not. I'm willing to bet that a lot of women who enter the pit can handle themselves better than half the guys who get in there."

We really want to know your thoughts, hear your stories, and get your opinions on this. If the response is good, we'll share them with others in a monthly feature dedicated to mosh pit stories.

Feel free to get back to us by leaving a comment here or by contacting us by email or one of our social networking profiles (you'll find the info you need on the "Contact" page). Tell us your stories, whether positive or negative, or if you don't have any experience of mosh pits, then give us your general opinion on it. Guys are welcome to share their opinions and experiences of ladies in the mosh pit, too.

Let us hear it!!

It Begins...

So after too many weeks of talking about how we were going to launch the blog and get things up and running, we've finally gotten around to doing it. Originally, we thought we should have something huge, exciting, ground-breaking and memorable for our first post to really get the ball rolling but then we decided that setting the bar too high right off the bat would set us off on a downward spiral from the get-go and lead us to ultimate shame and failure.

That, and Otep Shamaya was unavailable to assist us with a jingle for our grand opening.

All kidding aside, we had a few kinks to sort out before we could launch and, being really anal about appearance and design, it took a while until we were happy with it. This first post is basically going to serve as an introduction to the blog and what you can expect to read here once we really get rolling.

We started this blog because we realised there are little to no resources or communities out there on the web for female metal fans, and we thought that it would be a fun thing to do. That, and we're both pretty loud and outspoken and figured it would be a good way to express ourselves and share some of our experiences with you, in the hopes that you'll do the same with us!

I'm not going to take up too much of your time here telling you who we are and boring you with details you may have already read (if not, click on the "About Us" link at the top of the page), but I'll share a little bit about why we are doing this and what we aim to do.

Heavy metal is still widely viewed as a male-oriented genre, despite there being many, many females who love the music and can rock out just as hard as the guys do. Being female fans ourselves, we've experienced our fair share of problems and judgements from people, and we are well aware of the stigma that many people associate with female fans - particularly the ones like us who love to travel around to see our favourite bands with no intentions of trying to hook up with any of the band members, despite what many shallow people think.

Chances are, if you've ever travelled a reasonable distance to see a band and have been lucky enough to meet or hang out with band members, you've been labelled a "groupie" or something similar. I know I have! Truth is, there's a certain dedication and passion formed in a bond between a band and its fans, and people are often too quick to jump to conclusions. We're here to share our experiences, have some fun, and prove those judgemental folk wrong.

Basically, we want this to be a fun place for those women who love to rock out and are proud metalheads. Guys are more than welcome to participate, too, if they so choose! We're not sexist. We don't discriminate here!

We'll also be looking to include as many people as we can in the blog, and we want it to be a community rather than us just talking to you. We want you to get involved! If you'd like to share your story or a particular experience, or you want to be one of the fans that we interview for a future post, feel free to drop us an email or get at us on one of the social networks we've been savvy enough to set up. You'll find contact details in the "Contact Us" tab at the top of the page, but I'll put them at the end of this post anyway just for ease and convenience. You can also find the links to our social media profiles at the top and right-hand side of the page.

In the coming months we'll also be looking to conduct interviews with fans (male and female!) and also some bands. We'll be reviewing shows that we're attending, albums that are being released (or have been released already this year that we really dig) and will be covering various other things related to metal and the joy that it brings! You can expect a few posts a week from us, so if you think this is something you're gonna enjoy, feel free to subscribe to stay updated!

Until next time!

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