Fire Proof starts off jamming in style with “Our Night”, a fresh version of “Tomorrow”, and “Anthem.” These songs coming out of the gate represent Escaping Gravity’s musical “sweet spot”; which is to say up-tempo alternative rock with a strong lyrical delivery that switches to rapid-fire in just the right places, lead guitar that weaves a tapestry throughout and around the music, and a solid floor laid down by drums and bass.

 

The fourth cut, “Come Back to Me” brings out the lighters as Escaping Gravity slows things down for a good old-fashioned rock ballad. They also bring out the cello, which complements this song nicely. Unfortunately for the rock ballad lovers out there, this is the only song like that on Fire Proof. They do nail the song, however, so hopefully we’ll get to hear more in the future.

 

The rest of the album, with the exception of the acoustic track at the end, returns to Escaping Gravity’s core sound. “Into The Sun” is followed by one of my favorites from the demo, “Skin.” “Where R U Going” and “Overtaken” (which sounds like the same recording that graced the demo with perhaps some minor remixing) come up next, and if truth be told “Overtaken” would be the one song I’d likely skip over in a playlist.  The song isn’t bad, but just doesn’t seem to be quite up to the high standard set by the rest of the album. Whereas the other songs reach out of the speakers, slap you, tie you up, and make you want to listen, this song just kind of drifts off into the background for me.

 

 

With the final three songs, Fire Proof finishes even stronger than it starts. “Of Angels and Men” is a fast-action song that feels more like a car chase than music at times. On its heels is perhaps my favorite Escaping Gravity song, “I Alone.” This song grabbed me even in its less polished form on the demo CD, and it reappears on Fire Proof with a new recording. And I say “perhaps my favorite” simply because the other songs, old and new, have grown up around “I Alone”, so it’s not as easy a call as it was with the demo CD. This leads us to the cigarette at the end: an acoustic version of the first song, “Our Night.”

 

Fire Proof is a solid first release from a solid new band in the Dallas/Ft. Worth music scene. I only reported one “playlist skip” on this album – a far cry from (if not the exact opposite of) many bands, including national acts, releasing CDs with the notorious “one or two good songs.” And more broadly, Escaping Gravity has some serious musical chops. There’s no “sawing on the strings with a cheese grater for four minutes” sound to them. They’re a good band. They’re also a young band. While bad bands tend to stay that way no matter how long they hang around, I’ve yet to see a good band that didn’t get better with each album release. The brief span between Escaping Gravity’s demo CD and the release of Fire Proof have already validated at least the second half of that equation.

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