The Great Escape is the fourth studio album by A Life Divided. It was released on 18 January 2013.
Production
Full‑focused production of the album began in January 2012; however, the track The Lost was played live on 6 January 2012 to record some crowd audio for the track. This likely suggests that some preproduction started in 2011.
Some tracks had existed for around four to five years prior to release but had not been fit for an album until The Great Escape. The only track that was named to fit that description was Clouds of Glass, which was originally written for Eisbrecher.
The track The Last Dance was the last track to receive vocal recordings.
The album went through three trials of mixing, with the original mix being done by Erik Damköhler. The mix was then sent to Denmark to mixer Tue Madsen. However, the band did not believe that the mix was quite right, so Erik mixed them a third time before sending the tracks to Finland for mastering.
Before the journalist studio visit in September 2012, the original tracklist had Perpetual on the main album with On the Edge listed as a potential bonus track. It was also undecided if the track Foreign Rain would be included on the album. After the studio visit, both songs would be put on the album, with Perpetual being placed on The Last Dance single.
Promotion
The first mention of a new album being created was posted to the official A Life Divided Facebook on 25 March 2014.
The next post to tease the upcoming album was posted on 6 April 2012 to the official A Life Divided Facebook , previewing a snippet of the track Game Over.
On 6 August 2012, in a post to the official A Life Divided Facebook , a release date of 18 January 2013 was given, as well as the news that recording for the album was finalising.
On 26 August 2012, a post on the official A Life Divided Facebook noted that the tracks were being sent to Denmark for mixing.
In September 2012, various news outlets were invited to the A Life Divided studios in Munich to get early listening of the new material. Press reports of the studio visit would announce the name of the album publicly for the first time, The Great Escape.
On 14 January 2013, a video would be posted to the official A Life Divided Youtube Channel , previewing all 14 tracks from the upcoming Digipak release of the album.
Winter edition
On 18 September 2013, a post to the official Contra Promotions Facebook officially announced the A Life Divided/Down Below Doppelheadliner Tour, along with a tour edition of The Great Escape to release towards the end of the year.
On 22 October 2013, an Amazon listing for a winter edition of The Great Escape revealed a release date of 7 November 2013.
On 4 November 2013, the album would be delayed to 15 November 2013.
Depending on the streaming service, some services would list the winter edition of The Great Escape as the default release, replacing the base album; some would not have the album uploaded at all, and some would simply upload a "Winter edition Bonus EP". The EP would contain nothing different from the 7 additional tracks in the same order.
Tracklist
- CD 1
- The Lost
- It Ain't Good
- Clouds of Glass
- The Last Dance
- Game Over
- Feel
- Perfect Day
- Foreign Rain
- Wait for Me
- Goodbye
- On the Edge
- Space
- If You Want To
- The Last Dance (Eisbrecher Mix)
- CD 2
- Ever Changing World
- It's Alright
- Perpetual
- The Way
- Everything is Anything
- Always on My Mind
- Feel (Noel Pix' Icebreaker Clubcut)
- The Last Dance (Video)
- Space (Video)
Formats
CD - Digipak
Germany – 1 disc, 14 tracks
Digital
Germany – 13 tracks
CD - Jewelcase
Russia – 1 disc, 14 tracks