With an explosive start in title track ‘Ungrateful’, this is definitely an album that seeks to grab your attention right from the start; Escape the Fate hits you with a heavy opening to the album in a track that blends pop and metal elements extremely strongly. There’s some chunky guitar work that should appeal to fans of heavier music, but there’s also some real sing-along lyrical lines here, a trend that continues throughout much of the album; a mix of metal venom and supreme pop sensibilities.
‘Live Fast, Die Beautiful’ is perhaps the first sign of weakness on this release; a track that seems a little too pop heavy and without enough bite to really cut through. At just under four minutes long it is one of the longer tracks on the album and just feels a little too dragged out and stagnant. The band is at its best when mixing clean vocals with more in your face aggressive growls, and with this track the balance just doesn’t seem to be quite right.
Much like ‘Live Fast, Die Beautiful’, ‘Picture Perfect’ is another track from the album that perhaps doesn’t come across as well as many of the tracks here due to its extremely soft approach. Having worked with Patrick Stump during the writing process, the band has spoken about adopting a different approach to songwriting whilst working on ‘Picture Perfect’, and this is definitely something that seems to come across here. It’s not that ‘Picture Perfect’ is a bad track as such, it just seems a bit out of place in the context of this album. Some may take the track as a welcome break from the general formula of the album, a track which demonstrates a versatility on behalf of the band that can be seen to be a strength, for me however it just feels a little disorienting as you’re expecting another great pop-metal blend, and what you actually receive here is something far softer.
‘You’re Insane’ is an example of the band playing to its strengths, a track which combines a catchy hook with superb singability, an approach that the band seems to be incredibly adept at. The instrumental approach is strong with the band obviously made up of some extremely gifted musicians, and vocally it is also clear that this is a band in possession of fantastic strength. ‘Desire’ meanwhile is another track in which the band has again got things extremely right. A track that could quite easily be a huge chart success, ‘Desire’ has an absolutely incredible sing-along chorus and enough chugging guitar energy to give it a real edge at the same time. Complete with a brilliant guitar solo and some powerful drum work which will surely have you stomping your feet to the beat, this is a track that absolutely sounds like it’s made to fill arenas.
On the standard release ‘Fire It Up’ is the album’s closing number and brings things to a decent end with a track that once again combines some hefty instrumental work with a strong mix of melody and mayhem; the chorus is once again great to sing along to, and as the last track on the album it brings things to a nice close where the band is once again playing to its strengths in a track that absolutely leaves you wanting for more. For those listening to the deluxe version of the album though you are indeed provided with more as the band presents two more tracks; ‘I Alone’ and ‘Father, Brother’. With ‘I Alone’ there’s a real Gerard Way vibe about the way in which the vocals are approached, with a chorus that really would sound entirely at home on a My Chemical Romance album. ‘Father, Brother’ meanwhile takes things back towards the formula that we’ve become accustomed to throughout the majority of the album. There’s a great bite about the chorus, and whilst the verses are much softer there’s always a great energy about the track that therefore ends the deluxe version with a fiery and satisfying finish.
The album may contain a couple of tracks that don’t really seem in keeping/up to the standard of the rest of the release, all in all ‘Ungrateful’ is definitely a very solid pop-metal album however, melding melody and aggression strongly to provide an overall sound that is extremely accessible whilst also maintaining a certain amount of fiery passion. There’s a lot to love about this album from Escape the Fate, the third album that the band has released with Craig Mabbitt as lead vocalist, and the fourth studio album from the band overall.
Rating : 3.5/5
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
