Flyleaf, Lacey Sturm, Escape the Fate, and Islander

They have undergone a bit of a change up of late, with star vocalist Lacey Sturn having announced she was leaving the outfit shortly before the release of their third album, “New Horisons” in October 2012.

Sturm was the soaring voice that brought Flyleaf to mainstream success with the powerful singles “All Around Me” off their 2005 debut, which climbed to No.40 in the Billboard Hot 100, “Again” off their second album Memento Mori (2009), and the title track off “New Horizons”, which bassist Pat Seals said describes looking towards an uncertain future with hope. He said it is one of Flyleaf’s best tracks to come out.

Kristen May took the reigns as the new lead vocalist after Sturm’s departure and has ushered the band into a new era.

Their latest album, “Between the Stars” released in September 2014, is testament to their talents as an outfit.

Their current configuration is May on lead vocals and keyboards, Seals on bass and backing vocals, Jared Hartmann on guitar, James Culpepper on drums and Sameer Bhattacharya on guitar, keyboards and piano.

The album was financed through PledgeMusic, a direct to fans crowd funding platform and May said it is the result of the mixed creative energies of herself and the rest band finding difficulties in moving forward after Sturm having left and May’s previous band breaking up. The key theme of the album, like that “New Horisons” preceding it, is triumphing in the face of adversity, of retaining composure in periods of uncertainty and of staying true to one’s faith throughout.

While the transition into the new arrangement with May as the lead vocalist was not spotless – many fans were shocked and had doubts about May being “Christian” enough, due to her efforts to reach out to the broader scene – they have pulled together and put out perhaps their greatest achievement yet and stayed true to the morals for which they are known.

In its first week, “Between the Stars” reached No.33 on the Billboard 200 chart. It is proof that even after the challenge of losing its lead singer, Flyleaf have the strength and endurance to carry on making great music that connects with their fans.

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.