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Escape The Fate

Dying Is Your Latest Fashion

Written by: TL on 11/11/2006 01:54:05

Just about everything about this Vegas five-piece will be screaming EMO at you from the first moment you notice them, and truly, for an emo-fan their debut full length "Dying Is Your Latest Fashion" is a very very wet dream. Throughout this record, hints of other things going on in the 'scene' are omnipresent. You can find elements in Escape The Fate's music that will remind you of just about every emo-band you know (and I don't know about you, but I know many), but while this might sound negative, it doesn't at all have to be, and in fact it isn't, because the way the band has combined everything and the way they deliver it, their music needs no further justification than itself. The band I find immediately closest to the sound of "Dying Is Your Latest Fashion" is Senses Fail and their work from "Let It Enfold You", but fortunately, the album is far more than just a copy of that album.

First of all, this is one of the first bands I've heard being unmistakably emo, while utilizing screams and growls that would more likely make you think of metalcore bands like I Killed The Prom Queen. Just try and listen to the brilliantly aggressive "Guillotine" and while you're at it, marvel at the brilliant mini-solo showcased in the song. The recipe for songs here seem to be kickin' off with hysterical and rebellious aggression in the veins of old My Chemical Romance in the verses, while then slipping into killingly catchy chorus's that are just on the verge of stumbling into Aiden-like cheesiness, but are always constantly saved by the details that, like on some of the best early work by Story Of The Year, keep you able to take the music seriously, and not just line it up for execution right beside the songs from the latest Hawthorne Heights album. A mood-setting ring of a church-bell in "Reverse This Curse", the surge of energy that shapes the otherwise mundane chorus of "Cellar Door" into a tidal wave, or the way the last word of the chorus in the closing song "Not Good Enough For Truth In Cliché" is changed from clean singing into screaming, saving the song from its looming fate of becoming the all too cliche "annoying ballad" of the album. Details like these are all over the place, keeping Escape The Fate from relapsing to that very cliché emo mediocrity you'd expect them to be.

While details and songs mentioned by now are interesting enough, this album wouldn't be half of what it is, if it wasn't for the songs that aren't in need of saving at all. Apart from the earlier stated "Guillotine", the song "My Apocalypse" is just about a flawless example of how a working, credible emo/screamo-anthem is played. Opener "The Webs We Weave" doesn't fail to impress either, and along with "Situations" it is an excellent song that makes a great opener, since it seems to be a perfect introduction to the sound of this band.

These debutants have succeeded in creating an album that has that highly distinguishable mix between emo, punk and metal that you know from Senses Fail, while also playing on the strings of the hysterical all-but-cheesy vocal delivery you'd expect from someone like The Used, My Chemical Romance, Story Of The Year, or even Aiden. If I had to say something bad about this album, the only thing I can come up with is, that the songs could have been a tiny bit better, but to be fair, it could easily have been much much worse. Oh, and hell no, you're not gonna see me removing grades for the lack of originality, when a band makes a fusion of the sounds of something close to 10 of my favourite bands. Just when I started thinking the emo-scene was only going to produce watered down clone-bands from now on, something like this comes along. My wrists are safe for now. Brilliant.

Download: Guillotine, My Apocalypse, The Webs We Weave
For the fans of: Senses Fail, Story Of The Year, The Used, My Chemical Romance
Listen: MySpace

Release date 25.09.2006
Epitaph Records