Escape the Fate

The Las Vegas-based quintet Escape the Fate is a refreshing anomaly on the post-hardcore scene. Sure the bandmates have enough morbidity in their often-screamed lyrics for an entire Warped Tour, which they just played this summer. (Their release titles to date are There's No Sympathy for the Dead and Dying Is Your Latest Fashion). But they've also got the blow-outs, gnarly tattoos, and, most important, cock-rock swagger of a Sunset Strip hair band. In fact a lot of that death and dying stuff is tongue-in-cheek, the band members claim, meant to piss on the run-of-the-mill mopery of their peers.

But still, they give up respect for their scene forerunners. In fact the group got its big break after winning a radio station contest for new bands, judged by none other than My Chemical Romance. Soon came a tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect, and a deal with the legendary Epitaph Records. September of last year marked the release of the band's first full-length, Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, an 11-song collection of ear-pummeling kiss-offs to crappy haters and crappier lovers.