Escape The Fate – Dying Is Your Latest Fashion

Whenever I see a package from Epitaph I get excited, I mean, how could you not? It’s Epitaph for crying out loud. Still, there are the occasional Epitaph releases that make me groan, and when I saw Escape the Fate‘s cliche and boring artwork staring back at me, I let out a loud groan.

I was not looking forward to this album in the least. I remembered their last EP, No Sympathy For The Dead, as a generic, emo/screamo release; and most importantly, it was a release I never played again after I reviewed it. So as I looked at Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, I was pretty nondescript and knew what I’d be getting. I let the CD linger around for a bit before finally getting around to playing it – and I was surprised to see that the album wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

That’s not saying that Escape the Fate are breaking any new grounds, far from it; but they have crafted an album that was able to keep my interest from start to finish which is extremely rare for upcoming emo bands that are trying to break into the over saturated scene. Never do the songs become annoying or repetitive, they flow nicely and show that this upcoming band is one that plans to stay around. Yeah, their lyrics are filled with the same dark imagery of love and lost being described in metaphors death and destruction; but they aren’t overly important and you’re easily able to pass over the fact. Some lyrics, in fact, even grab your attention (Sitting in this room playing Russian roulette, finger on my trigger to my dear Juliet. Out from the window see her backdrop silhouette, this blood on my hands is something I can not forget.)

The music is strong throughout the album, which is a nice bonus. There isn’t any laid back, soft guitars, it’s all heavier and more forceful – with some great solos thrown in there occasionally. The instruments are all evenly mixed, with the right instrument making the necessary impact ar certain moments as they grow in momentum to burst out of your speakers. Still, the thing that makes Dying Is Your Latest Fashion so enjoyable and bearable compared to most emo bands is lead singer, Ronnie Radke. Finally, we have a singer that can hold his own. They are strong, powerful, and have a certain quality to them that makes them both unique and oddly familiar at the same time. It’s a mix of Buddy Nielson, Gerard Way and Bert McKracken. Although,like on the EP, the pointless screams ruin certain songs, because Radke has a strong enough voice,the screams don’t add anything, they just take away from the flow of the album.

The album is far from great, but it’s definitely entertaining; more so than most of the new emo/screamo bands, and much better than their EP. It’s far from innovative, but sometimes that’s exactly what you want. I have no idea how often I’ll actually play the disc, but I know that when I next hear Escape The Fate, I won’t be groaning.