Artist: The Great Escape
Album: In Search Of…
Label: Soul-A Records
Release Date: 2009
Review By: Steve
Track Listing:
1. Resurrect Me
2. A World Apart
3. Sand And Stone
4. Letters
5. This Is What Honesty Looks Like
6. Vultures
7. Widow
8. Here To Take What’s Ours
9. Babylon
10. Closure
11. Believe
12. Losing Sight
13. Maniac
What can I say about The Great Escape besides the fact that they are a five-piece metal/rock band out of Goshen, Indiana? This band is hard to put a label or genre on. These guys span the genres quite fluidly from metal to rock. With music influences of Saosin and Dream Theater you can probably figure out that not only do they vary their music style but also their vocals as well from clean vocals to harsh screams.
Musically these guys are very gifted musicians. They effortlessly cross the lines between rock and metal not just in the album but in most of the tracks as well. The album is filled with some intricate guitar riffs that fade into some soft catchy melodies. While I usually prefer my metal to be all screams and heavy riffs, I cannot help but enjoy the style and tempo changes that The Great Escape offers their listeners. Along with the metal influenced riffs, The Great Escape also offers up some great guitar solos with the best solo in the track “Losing Sight.”
Vocally, The Great Escape uses three vocalists to pull off their unique sound. Most of the track they effectively uses dual clean vocals and raw screams at the same time. The three vocalists do a great job of complimenting each other throughout the album with soft clean vocals and the intense screams. I was impressed with the deep lyrics that are present in In Search Of… These are not just cliché lyrics so they can lead up to a heavy breakdown. The Great Escape uses some deep metaphors to sing about our deceitful world in “Sand And Stone,” desperation in “Widow,” and taking this world back for Christ in “Here To Take What’s Ours.”
I am going to pick an odd song as my favorite for this album. Instead of going with one of their own songs, I am going to pick their cover of Michael Sembello’s 1983 classic “Maniac.” This song would have fit perfectly on one of those Punk Goes 80’s albums. The best part of the song was their breakdown at the end of the song while they screamed, “I want to see you dance!” I love 80’s music and love hearing harder bands that cover them.
I only had two issues with the album. First was the mixing and production of the album. The screams and gang vocals are almost kind of muted a bit in comparison to the clean vocals. It would have been great if they could have made them a lot louder. Second, is that a lot of the album starts to sound the same after a while and you forget which song you are listening to.
Overall: this is an extremely solid debut album from The Great Escape. If you like tempo changes and style changes in your music then you will find In Search Of… incredibly satisfying. With an album of 13 songs and almost an hour long, The Great Escape definitely gives you your money’s worth.