Review Summary: Escape the Fate release a mediocre debut. It's not all bad, front-man Ronnie is a shining light for a generic band. Such a shame he gets locked up.
yo so escape the fate’s new records are shit yo. There is no point in trying to lie to yourself by saying that Escape the Fate have progressed an elongated way since
Dying is Your Latest Fashion yo. This is simply because statements such as that are so far from the truth that even George Bush wouldn’t be comfortable telling himself how good Escape the Fate are now yo feel me my man?
Dying is Your Latest Fashion is simply a record where just enough is good enough yo dont take it to heart son. Encompassing the new wave of metals main characteristics: lyrics that drive deep and meaningfully into the bottom of gothic teenagers hearts yo when they should be starting gangs and listening to biggie yo, horrible guitar riffs, and rash and uninviting screamed vocals. If it were not for the bands savior- lead vocalist Ronnie- this record would’ve been the same old story.
As you would expect, from a lyrical aspect this album is absolutely atrocious. From the album title
Dying is Your Latest Fashion most metal-goers would be pondering whether this was a metaphor and whether Escape the Fate are lyrical geniuses. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Generic lyrics revolving around break-ups and friends stabbing friends in the back with the same knife two times is what this record is all about. Apart from the track title “The Day I Left Your Womb,” being unfitting for a poorly attempted ballad, the lyrics follow on in the same vein.
You took a piece of me,
The day you went away,
No recollection,
Nor the smell of your perfume,
I took a piece of you,
The day I left the womb..
A wombat could offer better lyrical work up to the plate than this pile of ****. The singing throughout this song sounds strained, and thoroughly unpalatable.
There is a silver lining in the deepest, darkest clouds from a vocal aspect for Escape the Fate. Front-man Ronnie isn’t your old run-of-the-mill vocalist; in fact, it is really his singing that makes this record listenable. His striking clean choruses contain mighty hooks that could make even the hugest
Cannibal Corpse fan tap their foot to the beat. “There’s no Sympathy For the Dead,” comprehends one of the best vocal efforts throughout the album, especially in the unbelievably catchy climax of the track. At times the hooks work the other way though, and make a track ugly and dull. “Not Good Enough For Truth and Cliché,” is one of the worst songs off the album, due to the fact that it tries to maintain –and fails- a charm during the entire track. The screaming that occurs throughout the album is mediocrity at its finest, and is unbearable at times, purely because it resembles the noise a parrot makes while it’s being tortured for food in Japan.
The guitar tone is absolutely hideous, as one could expect from this limited genre. It is thin, and lacks strong bass-line to back it up. The frail pitch really degrades from the album, and exemplifies why Escape the Fate are putrid at times. The riffs are not dissimilar to any other band that fits under the new wave of metal genre. These phrases have been recycled and tossed from song to song for generations, and Escape the Fate take advantage of the accessibility of other bands refrains and compile it all together to create a typical unexceptional guitar-orientated record. There is a definite lack of solos, and even decent break-downs. Where a song could’ve used a definite punch with a frantic breakdown, there is merely Ronnnie singing in an annoying tone with weak backing guitars, like in “Reverse this Curse.”
Dying is Your Latest Fashion is a journey through patchiness and mediocrity as listeners are taken on a wild ride where they learn about how they got killed in a car accident because they forgot to wear their seatbelt. The guitar is raucous and tedious, and the tracks are often incoherent and erratic. The vocal performance is top-notch and is really what makes this album rise above the label of – Vilest Album of the Decade- or even worse –not even
Brokencyde... If Escape the Fate fine-tune a few obvious dysfunctions they could become a half-decent band.
Recommended Tracks
There’s no Sympathy for the Dead
When I Go Out, I Want to Go Out On a Chariot of Fire
