REVIEW: Escape the Fate's "Out of the Shadows" via Big Noise Music Group

The Octane-core triple feature may be over but modern butt rock will never stop dropping no matter how forgettable it all may be. Las Vegas’ Escape the Fate is one that was close to my heart in childhood, but I was mature enough to let it go when the first singer turned out to be a monster and the second started pumping out music that had no sense of quality whatsoever. Still, every time they drop a record, I feel strangely drawn to it and so I did listen to Out of the Shadows for just a couple of hours on the commute to and from work and I definitely have some feelings about it.

The first thing that strikes me about these new songs is that I find it difficult to believe a producer would let any band out of the studio with these lyrics. Opening track “Forgive Me” has lines like “I killed myself today” and “I sold my soul to be reborn.” In fact all of “Forgive Me” is especially hard to get through, it sort of sounds like Google translate emo speak. This may be the most notable song within this phenomenon but a lot of songs here are pretty tough for that aspect alone. “H8 My Self” has Hot Topic merch lines about casting witchcraft on your enemies and becoming a hitman to eliminate them all of which on the basis of hating them “more than you hate yourself.” We – as a scene – cannot use the “emo couple wants to fuck more than they want to die” screen grab as a joke but then allow bands to act and write like this.

Lyrics aside, I feel like Escape the Fate simultaneously doesn’t know what their identity is anymore while trying to discover it within sonic trends that are so past the point of being culturally relevant it makes this album stale on release. The solo section in “Forgive Me” sounds like it would have been a noteworthy part to plenty of high school boys in 2005 Orange County, CA. The band also uses their own tried and true circus performer type beat for a few songs, which comes off as sort of sad seeing as it did work for them in a certain era but feels so out of fashion for them in 2023. They also take a lot of liberties from a lot of bands who were also doing numbers in the MySpace era. “F U N in Funeral” doesn’t only take a title from a Motionless in White song, it also lifts a part from one of their oldest songs “Just When You Thought We Couldn’t Get Anymore Emo, We Go and Pull a Stunt Like This.” These are just scratching the surface of course, “LOW” and “Rather be Dead” sound like they’re b-sides to the latest The Used record and the band also incorporates trap beats in several intros. It’s all just a dated band chasing trends that other dated bands were doing ten to twenty years ago.

As a final reach for artistic integrity the band also recruits Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas for a finale track and boy does he show up and do his best Spencer Charnas. “Cheers to Goodbye” is the perfect closer to a bad record, dated horrorcore writing style under generic lyrics about therapy and drinking. Charnas comes in and does the most meta outro he can, theatrically counting down to nothing but another lame, tired hook.

Out of the Shadows forced me to look myself in the eyes and question if any of the bands I liked in middle to high school were ever good, or if I was just holding onto something I would always grow out of. There’s a certain point where we need to just let these bands age gracefully into residency-like touring and, I say again, stop looking at their new music as if it offers anything of value.

I did not like this record

1. Forgive Me
2. Choke
3. LOW
4. Rather be Dead
5. F U N in Funeral
6. Lips Like Knives
7. Hypnotized
8. H8 MY SELF
9. Traumatized
10. Irreversible
11. Kings of Nothing
12. Cheers to Goodbye [feat. Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills]

Support Escape the Fate