Killswitch Engage

Vinyl Records and Rare LPs:

Atonement
New Import - 19075881731
Sealed 2019 Gatefold Original. Standard Black Vinyl Pressing. EU Import. "Over The Course Of 20 Years, Killswitch Engage Have Undergone Personnel Changes And Different Labels And Producers. They've Developed As Musicians And Songwriters But Have Always Remained Themselves -- Whether They Want To Or Not. The Band's Ever-more Refined Songcraft Is Chock-Full Of Songs About Moving Beyond Limits, Personal Growth, And Transcendence, But Their Sound Has Remained Stubbornly Close To The One They Delivered On Classics Such As 2002's Alive Or Just Breathing And 2004's The End Of Heartache, Two Albums That Defined Metalcore As It Emerged From The Ruins Of '90s-era Nu-metal. Atonement Marks The First Album From Singer Jesse Leach Since Having Vocal Cord Surgery, And He Sounds Better Than Ever, And It's The Band's Debut On Metal Blade After A Career-long Run With Roadrunner; From What Is On Offer Here, They Were Given A Bigger Recording Budget This Time Out. Produced And Engineered By Adam Dutkiewicz, This Is The Best-sounding Record In The Band's Catalog, Bridging Modern Studio Techniques With Early-2000s Ones. Musically, This Picks Up On The Inspiration KSE Attempted To Summon Wholesale On 2016's Incarnate (And Mostly Succeeded), But Offers More Fury, Melody, And Complex Textures And Dynamics. Opener "Unleashed" Offers Proof Of Leach's Singular Strength As A Singer, He Is Crisp, Urgent, Tensile, And Strident As Guitarists Dutkiewicz And Joel Stroetzel Display Their Incendiary One-Two Punch Over The Rapid-Fire Attack Drumming Of Justin Foley And The Sophisticated Bass Playing Of Mike D’Antonio. The Hard-Grooving Riffery Of "The Signal Fire" Places Leach In Duet With Former Vocalist Howard Jones And The Juxtaposition Of Clean And Dirty Vocal Shouts Works Like A Charm -- Particularly On The Choruses, Where Breakdowns And Crescendos Alternate. There's Another Growling Guest Spot Here By Testament Frontman Chuck Billy On Set Highlight "The Crownless King," That Commences With A Thrash Riff And Delivers Jagged Soloing At Key Points While Being Unrelenting Throughout, Melding Hardcore Aesthetics And 21st Century Metalcore. "Ravenous" Commences With Maniacal Hardcore That Recalls The Days Of Alive Or Just Breathing, But, Just As Quickly Shifts Gears To Introduce Melodic Death Riffing. "Know Your Enemy" Is A Straight-On Embrace Of Hardcore Punk And Sets Up The Angry, Midtempo "Take Control," A Number That Takes More Liberties With The Band's Trademark Sound, Offering Melodic Interludes, Progressive Vamps, And Dual-Lead Guitar Solos Atop The Chug And Churn Of The Rhythm Section's Propulsive Force. Leach's Vocals Are At Their Cleanest And Most Soulful Best On The Track. Near The End, "Ravenous" And Closer "Bite The Hand That Feeds" Are Twin Anti-Authoritarian Rage-Fests That Cement The Band's Status As Sitting Kings Of The Metalcore Heap. KSE Are Invigorated On Atonement. Hints Are Abundant That They Are On The Cusp Of Stylistic And Sonic Evolutions Balancing Bold And Experimental Elements, But Their Commitment To The Material, As Well As Their Energy And Focus, Aren't Forced But Are Occurring Naturally. This Is Easily The Band's Strongest Outing Since Leach's Return." AMG Review By Thom Jurek. more

The End Of Heartache
Colored Vinyl - New - ROGV-139
Sealed 2021 2LP Limited Edition Silver & Black Coloured Vinyl, Housed In A Deluxe Gatefold Jacket. Seminal Early 00's Metal. "By Fusing The Best Elements Of American Metalcore And European Melodic Death Metal (I.e., The Gothenburg School), Massachusetts' Killswitch Engage Achieved What Hundreds Of Nu-metal Bands Only Dreamed Of: Supplying American Heavy Metal With A Viable Facelift With Which To Set Itself To Rights In The New Millennium. The Fact That In Order To Do This They Relied On Songs With Actual Substance, Not Fabricated Image Or False Pretense, Goes To The Heart Of 2002's Stunning Alive Or Just Breathing's Success, As Well As Its Masterful Successor, 2004's Much Anticipated The End Of Heartache. Indeed, Little Has Changed From One Album To The Next, Which Can Be Viewed As A Positive Or A Negative, Depending On The Listener. But With Distinctive Songwriting And That Delicate But Explosive Dynamic Balance Between Melody And Abrasiveness Still Readily On Display In Pace-setting Openers "A Bid Farewell" And "Take This Oath," The Former Seems More Likely. Track Number Three, The Excellent "When Darkness Falls," Is Where Killswitch Will Convince Most Lingering Cynics, And The Ensuing "Rose Of Sharyn" Is Arguably The Group's Most Accessible Single Yet (And Also Possibly A Bone Of Contention For Fans Of Their Harder Stuff). Next Up, The Mild-mannered Interlude "Inhale" Is Actually A Warning For The Breathtaking Power Riffing Of "Breathe Life," After Which The All-encompassing Title Track Really Hammers One Out Of The Ballpark. And So It Goes; As Riff Upon Riff Are Piled Sky-high Into Each Number That Follows, It's The Unpredictable Rhythmic Shifts Used To Build And Then Relieve Internal Pressure That Fuel The Killswitch Engage Power Source. On A Side Note, Much Has Been Made Of The Replacement Of Former Vocalist Jesse David Leach With Relative Newcomer Howard Jones (Relative Being The Operative Word Since He Toured With The Band For Two Years Prior To This Recording), But, To Be Perfectly Honest, The Differences Between Them Are Totally Negligible. Jones Effortlessly Matches His Predecessor's Talent For Both Clean Singing And Hardcore-style Screaming, And Additional Highlights Such As "World Ablaze" And The Pulverizing "Wasted Sacrifice" Prove His Voice To Be The Perfect Complement To His Bandmates' Technical Proficiency. As Mentioned Previously, The End Of Heartache Only Errs For Making Very Few Attempts To Expand Killswitch Engage's General Formula, Good Though It May Be -- But There's Always A Next Time. And As The Saying Goes, Too Much Of A Good Thing Is Rarely A Bad Thing." AMG Review By Eduardo Rivadavia. more