The band was formed in 1996 by guitarist C. J. Pierce and drummer Mike Luce, who were later joined by bassist Stevie Benton. Citing a range of influences on their music, including Metallica, Anthrax, Slipknot, Alice in Chains, SOil, AC/DC and Pantera, Drowning Pool performed as an instrumental trio until 1999 when they recruited vocalist Dave Williams. The band quickly found fame after playing with Ozzy Osbourne during Ozzfest and released their debut album “Sinner” in June 2001, which features the band’s most well-known song, “Bodies”.
The album went platinum within an astonishing six weeks, however their fortune took a retrograde turn when singer Williams was found dead inside his tour bus. He sadly died from a heart condition which had been undiagnosed until after his death. The band decided to continue after William’s death and recruited Jason Jones in 2003. The vocalist recorded just one album “Desensitized” (2004) then subsequently left the band in 2005, due to “musical differences”.
In 2005, Ryan McCombs, formerly of metal band SOil was announced as Drowning Pool’s new vocalist. The band had originally wanted him to replace Dave Williams. Their third album, “Full Circle” was released in August 2007, after signing a new record deal with Eleven Seven Music and changing to a new management company. They toured with Sick Puppies and Seether in support of the album. A self-titled fourth album was also released in April 2010. Unfortunately, McCombs announced that he was leaving the band to rejoin his previous band SOil for a tour and new album, again leaving Drowning Pool without a singer.
Undeterred, the band continued writing for their fifth album and began auditioning for a new vocalist. Current vocalist Jasen Moreno, from The Suicide Hook, joined the band in 2012 and made his debut in 2013 on “Resilience” – an apt title for a band that has battled through misfortune and remained together despite it all. On the 10th anniversary of Dave Williams’ death, the band released a song in tribute of him titled “In Memory Of…”, the first to feature Moreno’s vocals.
The Band formed in 2004/5 when Max Green and Ronnie Radke invited Bryan Money to the band using the music networking site MySpace, who subsequently invited guitarist Omar Espinosa, followed slightly later by drummer Robert Ortiz. Later on in 2005 Escape The Fate won a radio competition judged by the infamous My Chemical Romance, which projected them into supporting them on a headline tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect. The competition also made the record label Epitaph records aware of the band and along with a successful demo, Escape The Fate were signed by Epitaph and released their debut EP “There’s No Sympathy For The Dead” in May 2006. The band put on a live performance soon afterwards and quickly acquired a loyal following with regular local radio airplay.
Escape The Fate’s line-up has been an ever-changing feature of the band, Carson Allen the keyboardist departed early, Omar Espinosa parted ways soon after that and lead singer Ronnie Radke was reluctantly dropped from the band after an altercation in a desert in Nevada, U.S. that resulted in the death of an 18 year old, which led to him being sentenced to two years in prison on battery charges. But out with the old, in with the new and new lead singer Craig Mabbitt was able to maintain the same energetic and visceral live shows and immediately recorded the sophomore album “The War Is Ours,” which debuted at number 35 on the Billboard 200, selling 13,000 in the first week. "The War Is Ours" tour saw the band travel and play alongside Attack Attack!, Burn Halo and William Control.
The third album for Escape The Fate which was self-titled, represented a shift for the band, moving to the major label Interscope and having the album produced by Don Gilmore, famous for his work with Linkin Park and Bullet For My Valentine. The band’s most recent full-length “Ungrateful” released in 2013 revisited some of the sounds heard on “The War Is Ours” and was produced by the same producer, to promote the album Escape The Fate headlined a free show in Hollywood, California, U.S.
I became a fan of Drowning Pool because a friend of mine suggested them to me for a playlist I was putting together to hype me up for a martial arts tournament. I typically find it hard to listen to it for a long period of time because it starts to overlap and become tedious. Drowning Pool had somehow become the exception because I found myself listening to their “Sinner” album on repeat, even when I didn’t have a martial arts tournament. However, I don’t quite remember how I ended up going to one of their live shows.
Because metal is not exactly my normal type of music, it was a little awkward for me being there; that is, until they started to play. Unfortunately by the time I saw them, the original singer Dave Williams had passed away, and was replaced by Jasen Moreno. While it was not exactly the same as the album that I knew and loved, Jasen did such a good job on vocals. It helps that they have so much raw energy! The entire crowd started to push forward and then eventually, as expected, a mosh started up. I did not participate, but it was really great to be hearing all that raw energy live.
In a weird way, the show was almost relaxing because it was a sort of release. You left the show completely deaf and half beaten up by getting caught by part of the mosh, and completely loved every moment of the show.
Since their 2006 debut album, Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, Escape the Fate has been aggressively touring and tearing up stages with deafeningly hardcore performances.
Lead vocalist, Craig Mabbit, sends screeching lyrics driven into the audience like a rusty, but solid steel spike being driven into the heaviest of stones. Lead guitarist, Kevin "Thrasher" Gruft, delivers piercing leads and sinister riffs with each brutal strike of the strings on his guitar. Bass and rhythm guitar drive each heart-pounding riff like twisted clockwork. Drummer, Robert Ortiz, brings the timing together with his malicious and apocalyptic percussion work.
Breathing new life into the post hardcore and metalcore genres, Drawing inspiration from a wide array of musical influences, Escape the Fate functions live like a well-oiled killing machine ready to melt the listener's face off with blisteringly executed songs such as "Not Good Enough for Truth in Cliché", "The Flood", "This War Is Ours (The Guillotine II)" and "You're Insane".
As any audience that has had the pleasure to bear witness to an Escape the Fate live show can testify, their performances will pump an insane level of excruciating metal energy through the listeners that pulls everyone in and unites them with a mystical adventure of hardcore delight.