Album Name: Chemical Warfare Artist: Escape the Fate Craig Mabbitt: Lead Vocals Thomas "TJ" Bell: Rhythm & Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals, Bass Guitar Kevin "Thrasher" Gruft: Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Bass Guitar Robert Ortiz: Drums, Percussion
Released: April 2021
Label: Better Noise Music
Rating: 6/10
Tracklist
Lightning Strike
Invincible (feat. Lindsey Stirling)
Unbreakable
Chemical Warfare
Erase You
Not My Problem (feat. Travis Barker)
Burn the Bridges
Demons
Hand Grenade
Ashes (Broken World)
My Gravity
Walk On
Chemical Warfare is the seventh album from Sin City four piece Escape the Fate. This album sees them experiment with a more pop like sound and step a little bit away from their emo band reputation. Escape the Fate are definitely at a point in their career where changing up their sound a bit would be expected as a lot of their peers are already experimenting with new sounds. However doing this is always a big risk as a lot of people don't accept change easily. With Chemical Warfare Escape the Fate have taken some risks but they also have a few tracks on there that resemble things that we are used to with them. On Chemical Warfare tracks such as 'Lightning Strike' and especially 'Unbreakable' have this feel good factor that makes them songs I would listen to when I need a little pick me up. 'Unbreakable' is undeniably a pop song and in my opinion it works really well. Escape the Fate have managed to create a pop song that doesn't necessarily feel like one and to me it's just a happy motivational song with cool chanting vocals. However even though songs like 'Unbreakable' work on this album I think Escape the Fate maybe took their experimentation with pop sounds a bit too far. This is evident on tracks such as 'Burn the Bridges' which in my opinion just doesn't fit this album or the band in general. Yes, the chorus is catchy but the verses specifically just feel kind of like a let down. It's almost as if they tried to do some kind Falling In Reverse style rap song and it just isn't quite all there. On the flip side there are some really good songs on here such as 'Demons' which is probably the heaviest on Chemical Warfare. Then there are songs such as 'Hand Grenade' and the title track 'Chemical Warfare' that have this emo nostalgia, old albums Escape the Fate sound that fans already love. Also 'Walk On' the first single off of Chemical Warfare is possibly one of the strongest ballads we have ever seen from Escape the Fate and I personally really enjoyed the guitar solo in it and I thought the vocals were really strong. In my opinion this isn't a bad album but for me nothing particularly stood out. It's like I can see what Escape the Fate were trying to achieve but it's just not there. The pop sounding songs that have been attempted don't feel like they were given 100% which is sad because 'Unbreakable' is such a strong song and if they had put more of that formula into the others this could have been a great album. Having said that there is songs such as 'Not My Problem' that since it came out I have been obsessed with and I will continue to love. Just overall this isn't really an album for me. Chemical Warfare features:
Lindsey Stirling (Violinist) - Invincible Travis Barker (Drummer, Blink 182) - Not My Problem
The opening track Lighning Strike's video which was released alongside the album is available to watch on Better Noise Music's Youtube here
Listen to Chemical Warfare here
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