Left to right: Jacky, Ronnie, Ryan, Derek, Mika.
Falling in Reverse is a Pop Punk/Melodic Metalcore band from Las Vegas, Nevada. They were officially formed when their lead singer Ronnie Radke — former vocalist from Escape the Fate — was released from prison in 2011, but published demos on YouTube as early as 2008, under the prototype name From Behind These Walls. They released their debut album later that same year.
The band was notorious for the drama surrounding their lead singer and their rivalry with Escape the Fate. Ronnie Radke was arrested in 2008 following run-ins with the law over narcotics possession and battery charges for a fight that left an eighteen year old dead. Whether Radke was asked to leave the band or was fired, either way, some bad blood came out between the rest of the band and Radke. In 2014 Ronnie made up with Craig and announced a joint tour between the bands.
Originally the band's image was somewhat the "bad boys" of post-hardcore, between having one album dedicated to insulting Ronnie's former band and another dedicated to flexing like mainstream rappers. Inadvertently helping this was Ronnie having several run-ins with the law even after getting out of jail, including being arrested for assault after throwing 2 mic stands into a crowd, something he deeply regrets. Starting with Just Like You the band presented a much more serious image, with none of their prior ego.
Members:
- Ronnie Radke - lead vocals, additional guitar since Coming Home
- Zakk Sandler - keyboards and rhythm guitar, bass before the lineup change of 2018
- Max Georgiev - lead guitar
- Tyler Burgess - bass
- Brandon Richter - drums
Former Members:
- Nason Schoeffler - Bass
- Scotty Gee - Drums
- Mika Kazuo Horiuchi - Bass
- Ron Ficarro - Bass
- Max Green - Bass
- Jacky Vincent - Guitar
- Ryan Seaman - Drums
- Christian Thompson - lead guitar
- Derek Jones - rhythm guitar (died 2020)
Discography:
- The Drug in Me Is You (2011)
- Fashionably Late (2013)
- Just Like You (2015)
- Coming Home (2017)
- Neon Zombie EP (2023)
Troping in Reverse:
- Abusive Parents: Part of the reasons why one of the kids in the music video for "Superhero" wants to leave. Combined with Alcoholic Parent; it's mentioned that the kid's dad drinks a lot and gets angrier when he drinks.
- A God Am I: In "Losing My Life", Ronnie mentions that he is no longer the King, but the God Of The Music Scene.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: "Good Girls, Bad Guys" references this dynamic, from the perspective of the bad boy who's baffled as to why good girls like him, in its opening lines and title.So why do good girls like bad guys?
I've had this question for a real long time
I've been a bad boy and it's plain to see
So why do good girls fall in love with me? - Boastful Rap: "Alone".
- Calling The Old Woman Out: From Ronnie's album thanks; "Oh yeah and one more person... my mother. Fuck you."
- Cover Version: They've done 3 over their career: "She's a Rebel" as a bonus track on some editions of Fashionably Late, "Gangsta's Paradise" as part of the Punk Goes 90s compilation CD, and a Softer and Slower Cover of "Last Resort" in the same style as their "Reimagined" rearrangements.
- Crunkcore: Fashionably Late is essentially this, combining electronic, rap, and post-hardcore elements along with an overall party-hard attitude and abundant Boastful Rap. The album was quite popular among its target audience despite crunkcore having fallen out of favor several years prior to its release.
- Domestic Abuse: The focus of their song "Pick Up the Phone".
- Also the basis of "Bad Girls Club" is him being wrongfully accused of this. Stemming from Ronnie being arrested for domestic abuse which he was later found innocent of. It should be noted that the court case was still ongoing at the time of release.
- Fanservice: In the "Drug in Me Is You" music video.
- Genre Roulette: While Fashionably Late still contains songs close to the Drug In Me Is You Metalcore style such as "Born to Lead" and "Self-Destruct Personality", it also contains the Dubstep "Rolling Stone", country-influenced "Drifter", Crunkcore/Rap Metal "Alone", and Pop Punk with Nintendo samples "Game Over".
- Grief Song: "Brother" and "Carry On" are written in memorial of respectively, Ronnie's brother and Jacky Vincent after the latter's death in 2020.
- Heavy Meta: Coming Home bonus track "Paparazzi" is a mass-produced pop song that discusses mass-produced pop songs and the notion of "selling out" associated with them.
- Hypochondria:
Ronnie stated on a Twitch stream that health anxiety is the subject of "Voices in My Head". - If I Can't Have You…: The Stock Phrase is directly quoted in "Pick Up the Phone" by Ronnie playing a Crazy Jealous Guy.
- Incongruously-Dressed Zombie: A zombie in a cheerleading uniform appears in the "ZOMBIFIED" music video.
- Intercourse with You: "Good Girls, Bad Guys" and "Red Alert", the latter being an unreleased demo which had many of its lines reused for the former, feature lines like "I just wanna kiss your lips / the ones between your hips" and "Sorry, girl, if this is quick / so please just take it in the ass and suck my dick", although the latter is Censored for Comedy.
- It's All About Me: A lot of Falling in Reverse's lyrics are this to Ronnie Radke, talking about how much better he and the new band are than Escape the Fate and how he is the "king of the music scene".
- Hypnotic Head: The head itself doesn't appear, but a series of TVs in the "ZOMBIFIED" music video feature hypnotic spirals, a rather on-the-nose demonstration of its Take That! at mainstream media.
- Kaiju: At the end of the "ZOMBIFIED" music video, a massive dinosaur-like creature wreathed in lightning emerges and devours Ronnie's vehicle.
- Killing Your Alternate Self: The "Voices in My Head" music video consists of Ronnie killing characters based on his past personae.
- Konami Code: The Konami Code was referenced in their 2013 song, "Game Over".
- Love Is a Drug: "The Drug in Me Is You" and "Sexy Drug".
- Metal Scream: Goes from Type 4 (High-pitch, almost singing) to Type 2 (Animal-like growl), all in the latter half of "Watch the World Burn"
- Missing Mom: This comes up on a frequent basis in songs about Ronnie's life, with "Drifter" and "I Don't Mind" focusing on the impact of his mother's absence on his later life.
- Morality Pet: In the "Popular Monster" music video, a Cooldown Hug from a young girl, stated via Word of God to represent his real daughter, is what pulls Ronnie out of his werewolf rampage.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Directly quoted in "The Departure".
- New Media Are Evil: This appears multiple times in the music videos for songs off of the Neon Zombie EP, including the hypnotic TVs in "ZOMBIFIED" and Ronnie murdering caricatures of himself attempting to cancel him on Tik Tok in "Voices In My Head".
- New Sound Album: Fasionably Late. They changed back for Just Like You.
- Coming Home incorporates space-rock elements into their sound.
- Their singles since Coming Home have both reintroduced rapping, but not the crunkcore style that came with it.
- Ouija Board: "Don't Mess With Ouija Boards" references the titular boards in its chorus. The rest of the song is about a Deal with the Devil, so it's implied the Ouija board summoned some sort of demonic entity.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Ronnie turns into a werewolf near the end of the "Popular Monster" music video. It has nothing to do with the moon and isn't voluntary, but activates when he's in danger, suggesting it's something akin to a fight-or-flight response.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The ones in the "ZOMBIFIED" music video are stated via Word of God to be a metaphor for cancel culture so it's debatable if they're symbolic or not. Otherwise, they resemble the usual rotting-human-with-torn-clothes design, but maintain some degree of sentience, are implied to be the result of media brainwashing, and avert No Zombie Cannibals; in a scene in a diner, a zombie waitress points to another one and the horde tears him apart. They also don't seem to realize they're zombies, based on a scene in which a zombie cheerleader sees herself as a human in a reflection.
- Parental Abandonment: A common subject of their songs that describe Ronnie's life, including being part of the introduction describing Ronnie's backstory in "The Westerner" and being the central theme of "I Don't Mind", combined with Ronnie's fear of turning into his Missing Mom in regards to his career keeping him from seeing his daughter.
- Rearrange the Song: "The Drug in Me Is Reimagined
", a Softer and Slower Remake of "The Drug in Me Is You". Until the end, at least. - Religion Rant Song: "God, If You Are Above..." and "Popular Monster" both discuss frustration with religion and God not responding to suffering. In "Popular Monster", Ronnie specifically proclaims himself to be a "non-believer", and its pre-breakdown hook insults religious people.Praying to a god that you don't believe
You're searching for the truth in the lost and found
So the question I ask is, oh, where the fuck is your god now? - Revolving Door Band: Jacky Vincent arrived early on, but the rest of the band wasn't stable until shortly after the first album came out.
- For those wondering, Anthony Avilla and Gilbert Catalano were the first two guitarists, and Nick Rich, Oscar Garcia and Khaled Biersack were all briefly the drummers. None of them are mentioned in the members list because they were gone before the first album was recorded.
- Minor case in 2014 with bassists. Ditching Ficarro to introduce Max Green, who left after all of 4 months. Live and in the studio he was replaced by session member Jonathan Wolfe for the recording of Just Like You, before permanent replacement Zakk Sandlernote . Ryan Seaman left in 2017 and was replaced by Rage Richter
- Another round of this happened between 2016 and 2018, with Jacky Vincent leaving and being replaced by Christian Thompson, who left in 2018 after a torn rotator cuff and was replaced himself by Max Georgievnote and then Zakk Sandler switched to guitar and keyboards and the empty bass slot was filled by Tyler Burgess.note
- Rock Me, Asmodeus!: "Don't Mess With Ouija Boards" uses a Deal with the Devil as a metaphor for a self-destructive music career.
- Sanity Slippage Song: "I'm Not a Vampire" starts with the narrator comparing himself to various supernatural creatures as metaphors for his self-destructive habits, and ends with him declaring that he's going to hell and taking everyone else down with him, completely giving in to them.
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: The focus of many of their songs, most notably "I'm Not a Vampire", although it, among others, also brings up the distinctly unsexy parts of it, such as via its
Nausea Fuel-inducing descriptions of the effects of Ronnie's drug habit and embedded vomiting sound effect. - Stock Monster Symbolism:
- "I'm Not a Vampire" uses vampirism as a metaphor for drug addiction.
- The "Popular Monster" music video, stated via Word of God to be about "what happens when you're pushed too far", features Ronnie succumbing to rage and turning into a werewolf.
- "ZOMBIFIED" uses zombies as a metaphor for comformity and "cancel culture".
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: Fashionably Late focuses more on rap, pop, and electronic elements, making it lighter than Falling In Reverse's other albums, but the acoustic-led "Keep Holding On" and "Drifter" still stand out as compared to a guitar and synth-heavy album.
- Take That!: Most of their first album, especially songs like "Caught Like a Fly", "Tragic Magic", and "Raised by Wolves", is a Take That! to Escape the Fate, with lyrics like "I just learned that my fate is something I can't escape", "This war is mine" (in response to ETF's album This War Is Ours), and "I dug a hole ten miles wide, so I could throw all of you inside."
- Take That, Critics!: "Alone" and "Losing My Life" consist of Ronnie saying that he doesn't care what the haters say about him and/or directing insults to them.
- The Four Chords of Pop: Coming Home bonus track "Paparazzi", a song in the style of a mass-produced pop song that parodizes mass-produced pop songs, alludes to the four-chord structure as part of the problems with mass-produced pop in its opening lines. It also uses the structure itself.Yo, here's another song for the kids to sing to
With the same four chords, just another hit single
And your radio station plays the same three tracks
That's nine total minutes we could never get back - Turning Into Your Parent: Used dramatically in "I Don't Mind", in which Ronnie states that his worst fear, embodied by him not seeing his daughter due to his career, is turning out like his Missing Mom.
- Uncle Sam Wants You: A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the "ZOMBIFIED" music video includes a poster of a zombie Uncle Sam with the line "I want to eat your brains".
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Alluded to in "I'm Not a Vampire", in which being able to lure any woman into his bed is one of Ronnie's stated vampire-like qualities.
- Wakeup Makeup: The music video for "The Drug in Me Is You" starts with Ronnie waking up with eyeliner on, somehow.
- Where Is Your X Now?: The final metal-screamed line in Popular Monster's pre-breakdown hook is "Where the fuck is your god now?"
