Review Summary: Brutal, crushing, melodic and just as metal as you ordered your Killswitch.
Killswitch Engage came out saying they were naming their 5th album Killswitch Engage some odd 3 months ago. They claimed that it would be a “fresh” start again for the band that already has one self-titled album and that being their debut as well. Coming off 2006’s “As Daylight Dies” I don’t think they exactly needed a fresh start. Creating some of pretty fresh and sick tunes, Killswitch is back at it again with their second self-titled album and I will say it was worth the wait.
Three years after a tightly wound little tune called “My Curse” entered the radio airstream comes another great record that already has produced some great singles as well. Being that Killswitch is billed as melodic metalcore, a mix of metalcore and melodic death metal; you can bet that the lyrics content and music will be pretty consistent with their previous efforts. They have such a good mix of brutal breakdowns and melodic streams of singing that it makes them almost hard to hate on.
“Never Again” is such a great album opener. It has a fast tempo, grand breakdowns and has the makings to be one of the highlights of the album. Of course a lot of the material on this album is similar to the rest of Killswitch’s material with Howard on the mic. They don’t stray from their definition of normal but that’s a good thing in this case. “Starting Over” is the song that probably defines Killswitch’s statement made about this album being their fresh start. With such phrases as “lead me back to where my heart belongs, can we start again? Go back in time to where we started” it’s pretty obvious that is where they wanted to go with this record. If they wanted to go back to their roots of Alive Or Still Breathing then they have succeeded, somewhat.
Like I stated earlier the material on this album is neither groundbreaking nor terrible, it’s just Killswitch Engage at their best. “The Forgotten” is a great example of this. It shows the true ability of not only Howard’s amazing clean vocals but his capabilities to deliver a crushing breakdown as well. Adam’s guitar work on this record is top notch too. It’s still just as fun and catchy as it was in the first self-titled record. “Reckoning” was the first single to be release for this record. It’s a more heavy set Killswitch song, focusing more on Howard’s screaming voice. The chorus has a pretty neat guitar hook along with some great drumming from Justin Foley.
The rest of the album follows the same path as the tracks I have already discussed. It has its fair share of melodic songs alongside crushing metalcore tracks too. “A Light In A Darkened World” shows the death metal influence in Killswitch’s music. The fast guitar playing along with blast beats from Justin make this for one of the intense songs Killswitch has ever written. Although it does clock in as the 3rd shortest song on the album, it proves to be one of the best. The intro for “Take Me Away” again shows the death metal influence but then goes on to be just another metalcore song. It’s seems that Killswitch refused to write anything remotely heavier than their norm but to instead just incorporate certain influences into parts of their songs.
The beginning of this album really showed promise. I think it really showed that they were starting to mature as songwriters and musicians. For some reason though the album begins to fade after track 6. The last half does prove to be worthy with the track “This Is Goodbye” but as the title basically says it’s a little too late to make a comeback. The closer of the album is a really good song. It’s well written, catchy, brutal and melodic all in one tightly wound ball of Killswitch Engage. Killswitch does it again with their second self-titled effort sometimes known just as the KSE self-titled. It’s brutal, crushing, harmonic and just as metal as Killswitch intends to be. They don’t leave anything out but still manage to leave the listener desiring for something more.
