Every year Soundwave brings a staggering assortment of the globe’s leading heavy-minded musicians down to Australia. Festival promoter AJ Maddah might have an outspoken public persona, but Soundwave regularly garners statements of affection from the participating performers.

“We’re very, very excited to be on Soundwave again,” says Escape The Fate vocalist Craig Mabbitt. “Last time we came we had a fantastic time. It’s one of my favourite tours to be a part of.”

The Las Vegas metalcore tearaways haven’t visited our shores since 2011. In the ensuing period the band released its fourth LP Ungrateful, as well as undergoing a series of personnel changes. Mabbitt eagerly awaits the forthcoming Australian visit, but it’s not long since jumping on tour was a far from ideal prospect.

“[There were] a lot of times in the past when I didn’t even want to leave my bunk,” he says. “Everyone was wandering off from the tour bus and doing their own thing throughout the whole day. I’d end up at some random bar down the street drinking a beer by myself, eating some mozzarella sticks and I wouldn’t see the guys until we went onstage. Then I’d go off and do my own thing with a couple of fans after the show and wander onto the bus somehow, blacked-out wasted and pass out.”

Mabbitt’s renewed enthusiasm directly relates to the departure of certain uncooperative band members. Just a few months on from the release of Ungrateful, longtime lead guitarist and key songwriter Monte Money, and his brother and rhythm guitarist Michael, left the band. Mabbitt describes the hostile recording sessions that preceded their exit.

“It was so all over the place, members weren’t satisfied, members didn’t want to do certain things. Finally, once you were so grateful that the album’s finally done, another one of your members decides, ‘Well I’m not going to tour anymore.’”

While the departure of the Money brothers (as well as original bassist Max Green) initially looked like a crushing blow, Mabbitt says it’s been crucial in securing Escape The Fate’s future. “Now I’m on the road with a group of people I want to hang out with,” he says.

Indeed, the band’s newly appointed lead guitarist Kevin Gruft has actually been part of the Escape The Fate family for years. “A lot of our diehard fans already know Kevin because he has filled in every single time the other members didn’t want to tour. This is a guy that’s been around for years in my life, that I’ve been friends with for years.”

Meanwhile, the unsavoury circumstances surrounding Ungrateful haven’t impeded on the public’s embrace of the record. Not only was it the band’s second successive US top 30 debut, it’s the biggest Australian chart success in Escape The Fate’s career. However, having had over a year to distance himself from the convoluted recording process, Mabbitt doesn’t believe it’s the band’s crowning achievement.

“There’s some hits and some misses on this record for me, personally. I’m ready to go back into the studio and do something brand new and just go full force within that.”

With intra-band harmony firmly re-established, Mabbitt looks forward with pronounced optimism.

“You just keep going and you’ve got to give thanks to the fans that are sticking by you through all of that. Once you jump all of those hurdles, the payoff is going to be worth it.

“I’m very, very excited to get into the studio and do a record as a band again, as a group of people that are all on the same page and they all want the same thing.”

Ungratefulout now through Sony. Escape The Fate are playingSoundwave Festival 2015 withSlipknot, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Slash, Marilyn Manson, Incubus, Lamb Of God, Fall Out Boy, Judas Priest, Ministry and many more atSydney Olympic Park onSaturday February 28 and Sunday March 1.

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