Escape the Fate is an American Post-Hardcore/Metalcore band from Las Vegas formed in 2004. Since forming, they have released eight full-length studio albums. Their first big break was winning a radio competition sponsored by My Chemical Romance, earning them a place on their tour and kickstarting their career. Dying Is Your Latest Fashion was the band's debut, the only album to feature original vocalist Ronnie Radke. This War Is Ours, released on October 2008, was the band's first album with Craig Mabbitt as the new lead vocalist. Their self-titled third studio album was released on November 2010 and their most successful album to date.
As said up above, the band went through quite a lot of drama concerning their line-up changes, especially the vocalists. Ronnie Radke was arrested in 2008 following run-ins with the law over narcotics possession and battery charges for a fight that left an 18 year old dead. Whether Radke was asked to leave the band or was fired, either way, some bad blood seems to have come out between the rest of the band and Radke. Radke was sentenced to prison for a couple years, and has now found a new band to front for.
After the departure of Radke, former Blessthefall vocalist Craig Mabbitt joined the band, first as a temporary replacement, and then as a permanent member. He also had a small side project going on called The Word Alive, but it didn't work out too well for him (he was kicked out due to his tour schedule with Escape The Fate). Nevertheless, the groups seem to be on friendly terms with each other.
With the addition of Mabbitt, the group has hit the big time with four more albums and several music videos. Their third album, Escape the Fate, has hit Number 25 on the Billboard 100, 1 at Hard Rock Albums, 4 in a Rock Albums, 3 in Alternative and Independent charts and 18 in Digital Albums Chart. Ungrateful hit 27 on the Billboard 200, number 2 on the U.S. Hard Rock albums chart, number 22 on the Top Digital Albums chart, number 6 on the Top Alternative Albums chart, number 7 on the Top Rock albums chart, and number 5 on the Top Independent Albums chart. Their 2015 album Hate Me did not perform as well, peaking at 58 on the Billboard 200 despite being produced by Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson.
Members:
- Craig Mabbit - Vocals (2008 - present)
- Matti Hoffmann - Guitar (2021 - present)
- TJ Bell - Bass (2012 - 2013, 2015 - 2021), Rhythm guitar (2013 - present), backing vocals
- Robert Ortiz - Drums (2004 - present)
- Erik Jensen - Bass (2021 - present)
Former members:
- Ronnie Radke - Vocals (2004 - 2008)
- Max Green - Bass, back-up vocals (2006 - 2012, 2013 - 2014)
- Carson Allen - Keyboards, synthesizers, vocals (2005)
- Kevin 'Thrasher' Gruft - Guitar (2013 - 2021)
- Omar Espinosa – Rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2004 - 2007)
- Bryan Money - Guitar (2004 - 2013)
- Michael Money - Rhythm guitar (2008 - 2013)
Discography:
- Escape the Fate EP (Unreleased to the public) (2004)
- There's No Sympathy for the Dead EP (2006)
- Dying Is Your Latest Fashion (2006)
- This War Is Ours (2008)
- Escape the Fate (2010)
- Ungrateful (2013)
- Hate Me (2015)
- I Am Human (2018)
- Chemical Warfare (2021)
- Out of the Shadows (2013)
Tropes associated with Escape the Fate:
- Album Title Drop: On Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, "Situations".
- Audience Participation Song: "Situations" when played live.
- Break-Up Song: A few. "Harder Than You Know" is an example.
- Careful with That Axe: On a lot of their songs which predominantly feature screaming, such as "The Guillotine," "This War Is Ours," and "Massacre."
- Commuting on a Bus:
- Max between 2011 and 2014.
- Sent to rehab to deal with his drug problems in 2011, is replaced by TJ on tour.
- Returns in 2012 for a few shows.
- Fired officially by management for passing out on stage.
- Came back in 2013 to fill the gap left by Monte and Mikey leaving.
- Left again in 2014 without telling the band, and joined Falling in Reverse.
- Literally inverted by the Money brothers, who repeatedly bailed on the band whenever they weren't using the tour bus. Eventually the rest of the band got sick of this, and officially hired their touring guitarist Thrasher.
- Max between 2011 and 2014.
- Coolest Club Ever: In the "10 Miles Wide" video with their own airline, with Joel Madden and Ron Jeremy in attendance.
- Cover Version: Of "Smooth" by Santana.
- Early-Bird Cameo: TJ and Thrasher were both touring replacements in 2011 before being hired.
- Emo Teen: Their earlier looks often called this to mind.
- Epic Instrumental Opener: "This War Is Ours." Oh my GOD, that intro...
- Fanservice: In many, many videos, especially Situations and 10 Miles Wide.
- Grief Song: "Picture Perfect"
- Before that, there was "When I Go Out, I Want to Go Out on a Chariot of Fire."
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Craig in one of his photoshoots.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: People who aren't familiar with screamed vocals might not be able to pick out words without the help of a lyric book or the internet.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Averted with Max Green, due to the fact that he does back-up vocals as well as bass, plus he's Mr. Fanservice for some fangirls out there.
- TJ as well, due to having all of the above qualities, but unlike Max, no drug problem.
- New Sound Album: A poppier shift from Dying Is Your Latest Fashion to This War Is Ours, and a shift to more produced, edited, and harder metalcore-like sounds from the latter to the self-titled.
- One-Woman Song: "Ashley"
- Performance Video: For the song, "This War Is Ours", ending with the guys in a motel room with groupies.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Ronnie didn't become a full-on example of this until Falling in Reverse, but when he was in the band, he was a big enough fan of G-Unit that he showed off a belt buckle with their name on it in a promo video and gave them a shout-out in the liner notes for Dying Is Your Latest Fashion.
- Rock-Star Song: Quite a few of these.
- Self-Titled Album: The band's third LP.
- Scary Musician, Harmless Music: The band members are heavily pierced and tattooed and rarely seen out of all black. Their songs? Hardcore breakup songs and self-esteem anthems.
- Seven Deadly Sins: The focus of the "Gorgeous Nightmare" video.
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Ronnie had problems with drugs and alcohol, and towards the end showed up to nearly every show drunk or high off his rocker. Max had the same problems. Craig was an alcoholic. "It's Just Me" is about getting wasted on tour, and the dialogue section at the end is about Craig enjoying passing out and throwing up because of alcohol use. Additionally, "Situations" is about one-night stands.
- Shout-Out: The video for "Situations" is one to Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher."
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Harder Than You Know," "The Day I Left the Womb," "Picture Perfect", and "Let Me Be". Also double as Power Ballads, except for maybe "Let Me Be".
- Take That!: The band never wrote anything directly about Ronnie during the feud, mostly just trying to move past it. However at their first show with Craig, Ronnie was in the crowd heckling constantly, and eventually Max had enough of it and introduced their next song as "If I could stay clean I could stay with my band", kicking off a several year long bitter rivalry.
- Talky Bookends: In Gorgeous Nightmare.
- Title Track: "This War Is Ours (The Guillotine II)", "Ungrateful", "Hate Me", "I Am Human", "Chemical Warfare".
