Escape the Fate’s New Album Is ‘Our Most Honest Work’

There’s no query that Escape the Fate have been via so much over their almost 20 years of existence.

“It seems like the band, every four years, goes through some major disruption that would break up any other band,” frontman Craig Mabbitt advised Chuck Armstrong on Loudwire Nights Wednesday night time (Sept. 6). “But we’re still kicking it.”

Drummer and authentic member Robert Ortiz concurred together with his bandmate throughout the dialog. “We have gone through a lot of member changes. That’s well documented. It’s part of our story. And because of that, it takes you time to find yourself. And for whatever reason—whether it’s the collection of guys we have now—there [is] a cohesiveness.”

That cohesiveness is powerfully captured on Escape the Fate’s newest album, Out of the Shadows. This marks the band’s eighth studio album and their first with guitarist Matti Hoffman and bassist Erik Jensen, two new members to the “collection of guys” Ortiz talked about.

Escape the Fate Search For Hope in the Darkness

Out of the Shadows does not solely seize a renewed focus for Escape the Fate, however it finds them exploring the darkness of the world round them—and popping out the different aspect with a minimum of some glimpses of sunshine and hope.

For Ortiz and Mabbit particularly, the journey out of the shadows is deeply private—they usually each agree that the new album is the band’s “most honest work.”

“Craig got sober during [the COVID-19 lockdown],” Ortiz stated. “He reprogrammed his life.”

As Mabbitt heard that phrase—”reprogrammed his life”—he advised Chuck that it has been fascinating to be on this aspect of sobriety whereas nonetheless singing songs he created in his earlier life.

“When I listen to those old songs or when I was gearing up for tours and familiarizing myself with the music again, I was getting really emotional because it almost felt like the songs I wrote years ago—it was like I was speaking to myself,” he admitted.

“It was like, I was crying out for help all these years and now listening back to it, I can hear myself doing that. I know there was something in the back of my head that’s like, ‘You gotta get this under control. You gotta get this under control.’ I could never do it. I was too weak. So to revisit some of those songs and play them live, it’s almost like I have more of a connection to them now … It’s incredibly powerful.”

Robert Ortiz and His Journey Toward Killing His Old Self

As Mabbit launched into his journey towards sobriety, Ortiz had his personal alternative to expertise one thing new in his life.

“[The lockdown] gave me a chance to spend time with my kids when they were very young,” he stated. “I’ve only had kids for a few years.”

In addition to being grateful for the “blessing” of getting vital time together with his youngsters, Ortiz additionally encountered one thing a bit extra divine.

“I’ll just say it straight up, I gave my life over to Christ,” he confessed. “In that moment, I realized that I killed my old self off. It wasn’t like, ‘Alright, cool, this is the new me.’ No, this was an entirely new person.”

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Ortiz known as it a “rebirth” and stated the expertise led him and the band to create the opening observe on Out of the Shadows, “Forgive Me”—a tune saturated in the theme of being reborn.

“Every lyric that I wrote or every lyric that TJ [Bell] threw in or whatever, it was like, we’re saying it. We’re doing this. We’re being reborn. We’re a new man, we’re a new band, we’re a new mission.”

What Else Did Escape the Fate’s Craig Mabbitt and Robert Ortiz Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Why they invited Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas to be their particular visitor on album nearer “Cheers to Goodbye”
• Their “whoa” second on Out of the Shadows
• What it is like working with John Feldmann, who produced Out of the Shadows and their earlier album, Chemical Warfare

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Craig Mabbitt and Robert Ortiz joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, Sept. 6; the present replays on-line right here, and you may tune in stay each weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you too can see if the present is out there in your native radio station and hearken to interviews on-demand. Stream Out of the Shadows at this location after which take a look at Escape the Fate’s full tour schedule.