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CD review: Escape the Fate
By Megan Carneal
mcarneal@mscd.edu

Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion (Epitaph, 2007)

Images are deceiving. Lately, it seems that a band’s image has become their most important asset. Marketing teams are raking in millions by making bands “look cool.”

Escape the Fate is one more band to join the droves of radio-friendly hardcore, which is just a synonym for boy-bands with guitars.

Dying Is Your Latest Fashion is the new release by Escape the Fate, and it seems like maybe they should turn this fashion insight on themselves and this rotten excuse for a genre.

The album is typical. The vocals are emasculated whines, the melodies are nauseatingly cute and sentimental, and all of their lyrics seem like they should start with “Dear diary, today in fifth period…”

The biggest shocker on the album comes from “The Guillotine.” First, congratulations to whoever sings, or screams, on the track, as they must have been the first member of the band to reach puberty. Most of the song’s vocals are actually hardcore, with husky growls and super-sonic screams, but don’t worry: They manage to ruin their only chance at decency by letting the other prepubescent boys sing in their high-pitched cries during the chorus.

When did whining become cool? When did a band’s image, from the shoes to the hair, become more important than the music? More importantly, when did Epitaph Records, the once infamous punk label founded by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, become a pop label for boy bands? These questions are not easy to answer, but something must change. The population of music listeners needs to wake up and stop buying stuff just because the band’s lead singer is cute or they have a genius marketing team. If trends continue this way, quality and talent will be replaced with $100 haircuts and studded belts. That is a fate no one can escape.