Album Review: Ungrateful by Escape the Fate

Photo from Wikipedia

Words by: Savanah Ruiz

With Warped Tour bands being announced every week, I decided to review yet another album from a Warped Tour artist, Escape the Fate's Ungrateful. This album was the first Escape the Fate album I had heard other than Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, and it's the reason I'm the diehard fan I am now. Ungrateful is a fast paced, fun, and heavy album, which starts with the intense title track, and features an assortment of great songs. Overall, if I had to choose one album to help people get into the "new" Escape the Fate (aka Escape the Fate with Craig Mabbitt as the vocalist) I'd have to recommend this one only because it's such an amazing album, and definitely shows the evolution and improvement of the band. Escape the Fate is currently working on a new album, and as previously mentioned will be on the Vans Warped Tour this summer. 

Track List & Comments

Ungrateful- This song starts off this album with intensity, and shows that Escape the Fate is back, and with a lot more anger. I love this, especially for a title track, and the video for this is very powerful because it’s about spreading awareness about bullying (although I will say it gets pretty violent and can be triggering for some). Overall, strong and uplifting track, and definitely on of my favorites off the album.

Until We Die- This song keeps up with the fast pace of Ungrateful, along with the uplifting tone with lyrics such as “we are not alone” and “we’ll always fight this”. I love the guitar solo in this also, and overall this song makes me want to sing along to it as loud of possible. It’s yet another strong track.

Live Fast Die Beautiful- This song is another great track. It talks about a girl trying to use people for fame, and it has this tone of both disgust and attraction to me, making it a fun song to listen to. This is definitely the kind of song that makes me want to dance, and another one of my favorites. 

Forget About Me-  This song is another angry track about just being done with people. Similar to other songs off this album, it has uplifting songs while still managing to be an angry track, which makes it nice to listen to if you want to channel your anger in a positive way. This is a cool track, and I even got my sister addicted to it. 

You're Insane- This song sticks with the theme of the album so far, and it’s about just being done with someone who victimizes themselves, and blames others for their pain. I like this song mainly because of it’s great beat, and I find it to be a nice track if you’re working out or need to feel empowered. Also, check out the music video for this one because it features the vocalist’s daughter and has an interesting storyline. 

Chemical Love- This song is about an unhealthy and addictive love, and it has a nice sound to it. Yet another great guitar solo in it, and overall, I’m loving the evolution of the band not only lyrically, but the actual music behind the vocals.

Picture Perfect- This song is about the death of a loved one, and it is definitely a slower song. This song talks about giving up pretty much anything to interact with that loved one one more time, while realizing that it was their time. This song was about the death of former guitarist Monte’s friend dying, and was supposedly written with the help of Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. Overall, this is another one of my favorites, and also has a music video in case you want to check it out.

Risk It All- Bringing the album back to a fast pace, this is a great song, which is as the title says, about risking it all to make good things happen, even if people think it won’t work, and proving the non-believers wrong. Yet another awesome track.

Desire- This song is about loving and desiring someone you shouldn’t and is definitely and track that makes me want to get up and move. The drums in this are great, and I love when you hear them specifically in some of the parts. 

One For The Money- This song is one of those songs meant to get the crowd going, and i can definitely see this being a bit of a headbanger. This isn’t one of my favorites, but it’s a good track nonetheless.

Fire It Up- This is another upbeat song, and definitely great for a live performance. I love the vocals and the guitar in this track, and it’s a solid track overall that I think was thought out well. I really hope they play this track on warped tour this summer.

I Alone- If I had to pick one song off this album to listen to for the rest of my life, I’d probably pick this one. It’s uplifting, it’s cheerful, it has great lyrical content in my eyes, and it’s pretty much about not needing anyone to survive, and not letting the bad parts of life kill you. I can’t describe how much I love this track, and I simply can’t get enough of it. This song is worth checking out.

Father Brother- To be honest, when I first heard this track I thought “oh great, another Escape the Fate song about family”, but this song has certainly grown on me. This is a bit of a sad note to end the album on, but it fits nicely as the conclusion to this album. This song to me juxtaposes I Alone with it’s lyrics about not knowing where you lay with your family, and feeling very torn up about it, which makes it stand out. All in all, it’s a good track to end the album with.