Some haters might say that all those who love Escapado are just stupid kids who don’t know the real deal but they are so wrong. First of it is not just kids who love the band and then who are you to judge? Escapado really have an enormous presence on stage or on floors in front of stages and they really touch and move people if they only let them. Other haters might say the band was just a copycat and riding on a free rider wave. If so, why don’t they play stupid breakdown-uffta-breakdown metalcore or spaghetti screamo? No, this accusation is too easy and just not true. Escapado are truly unique in what they do.

So what is it that they do? They play a brand of hardcore that is fuelled by emotion and a wall of sound as known from bands from Envy or Uranus with a drop of indie pop added. They are catchy as hell and masters of combining an army of guitar melodies to one big mega harmony. The amazing thing is they have only one guitarist but he really manages to reproduce this mayhem on stage as well. The whole record is midtempo in a good nod your head kind of speed. There are significantly more instrumental parts on this record compared to the one before. Hauke Albrecht, who recorded the band, called them “the Isis of hardcore” once. This comparison is not too far from the truth. Maybe this is one thing the haters hate: Escapado manage to combine worlds that don’t seem to fit together in a way that it fits perfectly. Sludge elements meet new school hardcore elements meet emo elements. Strangly there is no traditional screamo elements in the mix although it works out in a screamo context.

Every single aspect of the band’s sound has improved since “hinter den spiegeln”. Guitar and bass lines, drumming, song structures, singing and screaming voice. Everything has improved significantly. So I don’t see no obstacles for this record to become a favourite of many people out there. There is only one thing I don’t like too much about it. The way Der Tante Renate mixed it is very good in a way. You can play this record on maximum volume and your ears won’t bleed because the sound is perfect. However this is the only problem I have. In a live situation Escapado are a really physical experience. You can feel them and the clean sound without many rough edges limits this physical experience. A little more noise would have been better in my eyes. Anyway, I wish the band good luck for their future and I hope the collaboration with Grand Hotel Van Cleef will work out. Personally I don’t know I would have taken the risk of working with a non-hardcore label. I honour Escapado’s courage and hope it was no mistake. They deserve any attention they could possibly get!  [jan]

www.escapado.com