Words & photos – @rixoncaptures
It’s 2010. Escape The Fate’s self-titled album is blaring on your iPod Nano through shitty wired headphones you’ve tied in knots. You’ve cut thumb holes into the sleeves of your hoodie, and your choppy side fringe is covering at least one of your eyeliner-rimmed eyes, if not both. There’s a magazine poster of Craig Mabbitt on your bedroom wall, sharing the space with dozens of other bands you discovered on your family’s PC.
You could have told me that Melbourne had gone back in time tonight, and I might have believed you, as post-hardcore heavyweights Escape The Fate were back in town for their latest Australian tour with The Word Alive and The Gloom In The Corner. Through the pouring rain, the line snaking outside beloved venue 170 Russell was a smear of inky blackness; with patrons’ clothing and hair all the same shade of black. Fans new and old had come together to celebrate an iconic musical career spanning over 2 decades.
Our opening act The Gloom In The Corner was introduced by The Word Alive drummer Devin Attard, hyping the room up for one of his new favourite bands. The crowd reflected this energy back onto Attard and the four members of the band as they walked out and launched into 2024 single The Jericho Protocol; a perfect introduction to the band’s unique cinemacore sound. In between fast-picked distorted guitars from Josh Renjen and galloping drums from Josh Clinch, the chorus swept into a catchy waltz with lyrics “Heaven is a place where we go to die. I don’t wanna die,” sung by a haunting, invisible choir. The band’s on-stage apparel mirrored this melting pot of influences, with half of the members dressed in formal funeral attire and the other half dressed for a hardcore gig, showing the audience they were in for a barrage of musically diverse yet incredibly heavy tracks for the following half an hour.
The band continued through equally catchy singles You Didn’t Like Me Then (You Won’t Like Me Now) and Angel’s Wrath Whiskey from 2026’s Royal Discordance with vocalist Mikey Arthur swapping between high-pitched warcry yells, demonically low growls, and elevated clean vocals with ease through each song. As a treat for being a hometown crowd and the last night of the tour, we were gifted a playing one of Melbourne’s favourite Gloom tracks Bleed You Out featuring iconic breakdown call “Feel the fist of doom crush your fucking spine,” for the crowd to scream back at the stage with fists raised aloft. The chaotic energy in the moshpit was matched on stage by bassist Nick Davies as he headbanged and bound across the stage. The Gloom In The Corner have become a staple among the Melbourne and broader Australian heavy music scene, and their growing recognition from international acts and audiences is well deserved. Whatever is next for Gloom, I can guarantee myself and all of tonight’s crowd will be there to witness it.
Arizona quartet The Word Alive’s drummer Devin Attard was first on stage once again, equipped with a megaphone to encourage the already hot energy emanating from the room in preparation for his band. Opening track 2012 brought the room back to 2010 when their debut album Deceiver was released, with its iconic synth samples and marching guitar rhythm impossible not to headbang along to. Vocalist Telle Smith called the room to attention as he reached forward to the crowd, with guitarist Logan Abernethy beside him screaming for more movement. The final night of any tour usually brings some on stage antics and pranks, and tonight was no different. The band’s logo backdrop was replaced with a game of Super Smash Bros that members of Escape The Fate were playing side stage during anthemic track Misery as Smith and guitarist Jose DelRio shared vocals line for line.
There were many surprises for the responsive and energetic crowd tonight: the first of which was their cover of Heartless, which first featured on Punk Goes Pop Vol 3 from 2010, igniting the old-school fans in the room with many phones recording and hands raised high. Next was not only a track the band hadn’t played live in 7 years, Casanova Rodeo, but they were also joined live by Craig Mabbitt, who was ironically the first vocalist of The Word Alive before Smith joined. Rounding out the triptych of surprises, unreleased track Lethal Dose built up from harmonised vocal-driven verses to soaring choruses and a breakdown so heavy that even Attard had to stand on his drumkit before it hit. It truly felt like being a kid on Christmas again with so many gifts in a row.
Before their tour here in 2024 with Anberlin, The Word Alive hadn’t visited Australia since 2015. From the crowd reaction to tonight’s set, fans won’t have to wait another 9 years to see them again.
Fitting for an underground venue, the room had become as hot as Hell from the constant moshpit movement and screaming crowd singing along with every song. I was not prepared for a winter show to feel as warm as it did, and I’m sure everyone’s hair was glued to their neck the same as mine was. There was no slowing down though, as tonight’s headliners were up next. With dimmed lights, a symphonic intro of strings welcomed Escape The Fate onto the stage, met with the dissonant wail of a lone guitar chord that exploded into 2013’s Ungrateful. Vocalist Craig Mabbitt’s headbanging was wild enough to almost fold him in half with mirrored guitarists Matti Hoffman and Eric Jensen throwing their guitars overhead on either side of the stage. The excitement in the room was rabid from both crowd and band, making for the start of a wild set that quickly flowed into 10 Miles Wide featuring The Gloom In The Corner’s Mikey Arthur. My experience with seeing metalcore and post-hardcore acts with careers spanning as long as Escape The Fate’s, is usually the oldest songs on the setlist draw the biggest reaction. But tonight was the exception as both new and old songs alike had the crowd alive and jumping. The singalong choruses in Ashley from 2008 had crowdsurfers flowing over the barrier as fans clapped along, and newly released single Idle Potential’s title was sung back at the stage throughout its catchy refrains.
Continuing The Word Alive’s theme of gifting a well-behaved and enthusiastic crowd new songs, Escape The Fate gave us not one, but TWO unreleased tracks inspired by old-school metalcore in Last Goodbye and Paranoia; the former a fast gallop of a song with a punching half-speed breakdown, and the latter a heavy anthem featuring a call and response chorus between Mabbitt and Jensen. After a sweeping guitar solo from a spotlighted Hoffman featuring more Super Smash Bros on the backdrop (this time played by The Word Alive), the Halo 2 theme bled into This War Is Ours (Guillotine II) and the whole room became Escape The Fate’s dedicated choir. The room was filled with over 1000 people passionately singing the iconic chorus “And I will see you through the smoke and flames on the frontlines of war,” into the open arms of the quartet on stage. And what else could follow Guillotine II if not its third installment, The Aftermath (G3)? Drummer Robert Ortiz delivered a blistering display of double kicks with the same relentless energy as he had at the start of their set.
Closing the night with crowd favourite One For The Money, Mabbitt mused about how much Escape The Fate love playing in Melbourne and how they wish to play here every night, and that sentiment was shared across the room. Featuring tracks from 20 years’ worth of albums, tonight was one to remember for fans both new and old. Whether their songs auto played on your Myspace profile in the late 2000s or you found them on a reshared TikTok earlier this year, Escape The Fate are a staple listening experience when it comes to heavy music, and are showing no signs of slowing down.
Huge thanks to THE GLOOM IN THE CORNER, THE WORD ALIVE, ESCAPE THE FATE and Maric Media.
