Left to right: Jacky, Ronnie, Ryan, Derek, Mika.
Falling in Reverse is a screamo/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. 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 seems to have come out between the rest of the band and Radke. In 2013 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)
Troping in Reverse:
- The Atoner: Ronnie after making up with Craig in 2013 and becoming a father, seems to really want to ditch the past "Radical Ronnie" bravado he put on. He also seems incredibly regretful about the time he cheated on his girlfriend, especially as it caused him to see his daughter less.
- Boastful Rap: "Alone".
- Calling The Old Woman Out: From Ronnie's album thanks; "Oh yeah and one more person... my mother. Fuck you."
- Crunkcore: Fashionably Late is essentially this. 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.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Ronnie.
- Fanservice: In the "Drug In Me Is You" music video.
- Intercourse with You: "Good Girls, Bad Guys" and Red Alert.
- Irony: Zakk Sandler was the first bassist Craig called in to replace Max Green in Escape the Fate. Guess who Ronnie hired when Max quit Falling in Reverse?
- 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", apparently.
- Hypocritical Humor: In some of his solo songs, Ronnie will throw out a homophobic insult or two. Yet without fail, any performance of Situations will feature him making out with a bandmate.
- Jerkass: Ronnie Radke, if this video is anything to go by. Several other people, including fans themselves, have even called him out on this. The incident where he threw a mic stand into the crowd at a show at Six Flags Great Adventure and managed to both send several people to the hospital and get heavier acts permanently banned from being booked at the park did not help matters.
- His choice of lyrical content is all you need to know Ronnie is a bit of a jerk, with lines like "They'll call me king of the music scene"
- Konami Code: The Konami Code was referenced in their 2013 song, "Game Over".
- Large Ham: Ronnie.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: All of them, but especially Ronnie for most fangirls.
- Mr. Fanservice: Especially Ronnie and Jacky.
- Multicolored Hair: Mika's new 'do is bright red, reminiscent of Gerard Way's atomic red dye job.
- Ronnie went for this in 2014, having similar bright red hair with shaved sides. He later dyed it black again.
- 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.
- Parental Abandonment: Ronnie's mom left him and his brother when they were young.
- He finally met her again in November 2013.
- 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: Ronnie is not a fan of religion at all, criticizing it for its treatment of LGBT people.
- This section from the breakdown on "Popular Monster", whereby Ronnie also proclaims himself as a non-believer on the hook:
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: Forming a band at the start of your 2 year long prison sentence will do that. 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 these 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
- Sanity Slippage Song: "I'm Not a Vampire"
- Scary Musician, Harmless Music
- Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll: The focus of many of their songs, since they were apparently written by Ronnie while he was in jail and going through rehab. However, he is currently very much sober, and as much can be assumed for the other band members.
- Actually a requirement on tour. Ronnie is Straight Edge now, and doesn't trust himself around substances to the point of declaring them off limits on the bus. I See Stars were thrown off tour in 2012 when their keyboard player was arrested for weed possession.
- Start My Own: How the band was formed. Ronnie was mad at his former bandmates and swore to become bigger than they were. (For the record, they're about equal ever since.)
- Also why Max left. He'd been attempting to make a band of his own since being thrown out of ETF, and finally they debuted in 2016 as Violent New Breed.
- Jacky started a solo shred/instrumental rock project and eventually left to focus on it.
- Take That!: Most of their first album, especially songs like "Caught Like a Fly", "Tragic Magic", and "Raised by Wolves", seem to be a huge 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."
- This was, by the way, part of the most vicious feud in Rock music since Metallica and Megadeth. It got to the point where people were getting in fights or thrown out at their shows for wearing the other band's shirt. Finally ended in 2013 after Craig and Ronnie announced a mutual tour.
- Take That, Critics!: "Alone".
- Word Salad Lyrics: Especially "The Drug in Me Is You".
