REMEMBER WHEN KILLSWITCH ENGAGE RELEASED AN ALBUM THIS YEAR?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 10:30am by Vince NeilsteinThat was pretty anti-climactic, wasn’t it?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Killswitch Engage’s self-titled record isn’t showing up on any year-end lists for 2009… I literally haven’t seen it appear on one list yet. And there’s a reason for that; this record simply isn’t as good as any of the prior ones. Despite the production work of Brendan O’Brien, the record ended up a disorganized assemblage of stock KsE songs. The record has its moments (most notably album-opener “Never Again” which is a ripper), but on the whole the album just isn’t that memorable and doesn’t offer much re-listening value. Even 2006’s As Daylight Dies, which many panned at the time, is much better — I listened to it the other day for the first time in at least a year and I was actually surprised at how well the album holds up.
For me, nothing will ever match The End of Heartache, but this year’s self-titled affair didn’t even come close. Surely there are some people who love the new record, as KsE still pack their shows and still sold a respectable number of records (if not close to the totals their two prior releases amassed). Perhaps it’s the younger generation, a fact that Howard Jones and Justin Foley seem all too aware of in the Canadian AUX.tv interview posted below. Has KsE lost their older fan-base for good?
-VN
They need something new, sequentially, the albums sound the same as the ones before, just with the songs in a different order. That works fine for two, maybe three albums, but they’ve taken it to the, “Why even bother buying the new album when I can put an old one on shuffle and hear the same thing?”
THIS
killswitch hasnt released 3 11-12 track albums since Jesse David Leach left, theyve put out one 34 track album spanning 5 years. its starting to get really old. thats why end of heartache was awesome (new sound, cool stuff), as daylight dies was kinda ehhhh (same sound second album in a row, kinda sucks), and self-titled SUCKED (3rd in a row? okay now this is getting ridiculous). u cant keep putting out the same album with different artwork every few years and expect 2 hold on to a fanbase. thats why the fans that have been with them since the FIRST self-titled, myself included, are pissed off and jaded. the newer fans love it though, cuz for them it wasnt 2 album cycles of disappointment. im sure if someone handed me all 3 albums 5 years ago and told me it was one super-uber deluxe edition album, i might not be as pissed. yeah it would get boring listening 2 the same track with different lyrics 34 times, but at least all that disappointment would be erased
I agree completely. The last two albums have fallen flat on my ears. It feels like at this point KSE has 6 or 7 musical tricks, and they just pick and choose which ones go in each song, in which order. Switch it around, new song.
i have been a fan since the jesse days and havent lost me as a fan..yet
one more album like the last one then im done buying their albums.
needs less radio more grrrrrr. even though i like the last two songs on the album, just seems they forgot what kind of band they where?
The new album ain’t too bad. The problem was that it followed too closely the formula the band has been playing for many years. They need to change things up a bit. As Daylight Dies was a much better album & their cover for Holy Diver is godly.
Yup, the album wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Still, there is much worse out there.
I think a lot of bands from that “New Wave of American Heavy Metal” from earlier in this decade are all hitting major slumps. KSE’s become very repetitive. Shadows Fall hasn’t written anything worthwhile since The War Within. Even Lamb of God’s last album sounded stale (at least I thought so). I haven’t listened to Chimaira since the self-titled album so I can’t really say if they’ve hit a slump like the others.
It’s like they’ve all become too comfortable with writing the same material over and over. The closest parallel I would draw is Black Label Society. BLS’s first few albums were pretty damn good. Then Zakk Wylde got to a point where he basically thought, “Hey, who needs effort? I crap good guitar riffs!” which lead to a demise in the quality of BLS albums.
These bands sound like they’re not even trying anymore to do something interesting. They figure that if it sounds like their previous albums, that it’ll sell because that’s what fans seem to want.
On a side note, I’ve never been a huge fan of Howard Jones and I think KSE will never top Alive or Just Breathing. End of Heartache isn’t a bad album but it just doesn’t have the balls that Alive or Just Breathing has.
Very well said.
Nicely put. I agree on both your LOG and BLS observations. Trivium is the only “New Wave of American Heavy Metal” band that actually got better with the new album, in my opinion.
I agree with most of your points as well, though I did enjoy LOG’s new record a lot. As for Chimaira, they definitely don’t use the same formula time and again; each record is pretty different. I absolutely love “The Impossibility of Reason”, “Resurrection”, and “Chimaira”, but the new record has no replay value for me whatsoever. Axl and Vince jizz all over it constantly, as do many people who visit the site, but I just don’t see it. The album isn’t BAD, per se, it’s just missing faster tempos which makes it all sound the same, to me anyway.
I never got the jizzing all over the infection either. The first couple times I listened to it I went ‘meh.’ One day though, it clicked, and it just hit me like a semi truck…right when “the venom inside” gets into it’s first run after the intro, oh my gosh it kicks my ass every time
+ 1 to the Alive or Just Breathing comment.
Also, did anyone else notice the shift in lyrical subject matter between Jesse and Howard?
Yeah, how could you NOT notice? Jesse has much more interesting things to say.
From “Numbered Days”:
The time approaches, fall, this is the voice of the voiceless,
We have learned by making choices
After persecution and delusion
We have severed this illusion
To build our foundation of natural elements to preserve life
We will rise, this Babylon falls
From “Rose of Sharyn”:
Numb and broken
Here I stand alone
Wondering what were
The last words I said to you
Hoping, praying that I’ll find a way
To turn back time
Can we turn back time?
It seems like Howard constantly sings about heartbreak and relationships (not always, but more often than not) while Jesse’s lyrics are heavily political/social commentary.
I think it was their cover of Holy Diver that brought on such a radio-friendly sound for the new record. People, especially tons of older listeners who may have been previously unaware of Killswitch, got into them with the cover.
Opinion-wise, i think Alive of Just Breathing is the best Killswitch album, maybe one of the best records ever in the genre. End of Hearthache was phenomenal, and though Daylight was for the most part good, it began their downslide. I listened to the new album once. I was very disappointed and unimpressed. And i am still in disbelief why they would self-title it. They already have a self-titled album. It only creates confusion. I hope their next one returns to the sound that most original Killswitch fans are dying to hear again.
I haven’t been a fan of much of the post- Jesse Leech era stuff, too poppy for me…regardless, it matters little whether this record ends up on top 10 lists when it outsells almost everything on most people’s year end lists combined.
The Shadows Fall record went nowhere IMO, that and the Divine Heresy records were huge failures
it may be losing both old and young fan bases. the old farts (and tr00-er closet fans of alive or just breathing) think the new material sounds to radio friendly. and the young-uns just wont listen to anything that is breakdowns non-stop or radio metal( A7x, Slipknot). Unfortunately KSE no longer has heavier metalcore nor good catchy melodic metalcore; its just a meh blend of the two with some At the gates riffs
anything thAT isnt breakdowns
Alive or Just breathing is insanely fucking good. Everything since not so much. It’s just not the same band.
This.
Exactly what I was gonna say. In terms of metalcore, Alive or Just Breathing and Shogun are my favorite albums.
It’s not bad record as such, but it does feel by the numbers and completely lacks a WOW factor. I think they need to embrace their heavier side again, as the pseudo ballads are all merging into one.
The thing is, they should have the talent within the band to do it – Howard can scream his lungs out with the best of them (don’t believe me? listen to Spirals by Blood Has Been Shed). Adam and Joel are very good guitar players, and Justin Foley, judging by his Blood Has Been Shed work, is an amazing drummer. What they need is a kick up the arse and less of a break between albums. Hopefully that might encourage some innovation. Either that or lock them in a room with Devin Townsend.
I like that whole Devin Townsend idea. You might be onto something there, as it (sorta) worked for Bleeding Through when they started sucking. Anyways, I got the same impression off of the new album that everyone else seems to have gotten…it was just by-the-numbers KsE…save for a couple songs, I can’t even remember what most of the songs sounded like, and that’s after repeated listens.
Killswitch who?
I think a major problem is fear of change. Once you have made something that works and sells, you might fear of going outside the comfort zone. The new record isnt selling as well as the last few but at the same time it’s not a complete dud. Also, I dont think this is a band that needs to scream anymore. I would personally love to seem them go outside that comfort zone and write something that is not them at all, if it’s heavy great if its not, I think it would still be interesting.
Being a one trick pony works for a lot of bands – but not this one these days. Last two seemed a little contrived, like they were ticking boxes, which I don’t enjoy saying because Alive Or Just Breathing is still one of my favourite metal albums. But at least they’ve done some excellent work in the past.
slayer does it..
I don’t think the new album really sounded the same as others. Hence why it’s not as good.
I dunno, I’m almost 40 and I LOVE Killswitch. I agree that they do what they do, and they’ve gotten more radio friendly, but they make great records. The riffs are awesome, Howard is a monster singer, Justin is a great drummer, they’ve got great melodies and choruses. Throw some KSE on when you are working out and tell me you aren’t pumped up? Could they tweak the formula a bit, no question. Are they ground breaking at this point, no! But sometimes they just hit the spot.
And I might get slammed for saying this, but I think the recent Shadows Fall record is the best thing they’ve done since ‘Of One Blood.’ It’s definitely in my Top 10 for 2009, I think it’s an incredible record, bums me out that is seems to have fallen flat. Oh well, too each their own…
im not pumped up.
Really Vince? You think End of Heartache is better than Alive or Just Breathing? I think they well never come close to Just Breathing again, but I really enjoyed the newest album. Overall, I thought it was better than Daylight Dies because they weren’t trying to do the same thing they did on Heartache; for lack of a better term, they “grew” a little. And the guitar work is definitely stepped up from Daylight too.
blahh blah blah, I thought the last Killswtich record was a solid album and a good step in the right direction.
I like the new album.
It’s not as good as AoJB or TEoH but it’s still a cool record. It’s just a fun listen.
Like Justin said in the interview “all your records sound the same” “Your old records are better” how does that work? I don’t think the new record sounds like anything they’ve done in the past except for a couple of songs ofc. Songs like ‘The Return’, ‘Take Me Away’ and ‘Lost’ would sound completely out of place on ‘TEoH’
You can bail on them now, but you know within ten years you’ll be on a nostalgia trip and rave about how great a band they were.
Is there really much point deserting them when that’s a near inevitability? Surely that cycle gets old.
agreed. maybe the genius inside Adam D (which helped produce many awsome bands we love) will come back. or all we know, this was prolyl just a bullshit record released to make money.
so who cares
ill be waiting for the next album
hopefully its ucking brutal
There are very few bands that can maintain a “signature sound” and still evolve musically and not sound formulaic. KSE is not one of them.
I dont know what to say about Killswitch, their last album wasn’t nearly as bad as people say, but it wasn’t great either. You can tell it was very rushed and an uncomfortable situtation for them.
If you look, you’ll easily see that Killswitch has been turning to a more radio friendly band the past few albums. I dont ever expect them to go back to the way they once were, I just hope that now that their in the radio airplay ball game, they crush any other douche bag band that is in that same category,
Yeah, they missed my top ten albums of this year. The album is good but my complaint is that every song off that last two albums are better then these new songs. The new stuff is good, and some are great, (“I Would Do Anything.”)
“As Daylight Dies” might be in my top 20 albums of all time, and “The End Of Heartache” is up in my top 40 as well.
Overall a great band IMO. I hope they can come back with a huge album.
killswitch engage was the band that got me to underground metal “the end of heartache” was amazing and i forget about it for awhile but when i put back on my ipod like its brand new and then when i heard “alive or just breathing” oh wow!!! that might be my favorite album of my whole life i enjoyed “as daylight dies i thought it was good i agree that latest wasn’t that great it still all right but it didn’t really grab me but i still love them hopefully their make a kick-ass album as good as “the end of heartache”
I do not enjoy this band…
Oh man, I was wondering what VN’s opinion on this piece of shit was. I mean, WTF?!?!? I wouldn’t be surprised if they do a collab with fucking timbaland or whatever the hell his name is next. goddamn shitty, commercial, generic, intro-verse-chorus-(scales played on top of power-chords with cheesy vox’s and uninteresting rhythm sec.)-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-NEXT. this is not metal, this is suck. Ok, sorry, had to get that out, I’m gunna go listen to some Divinity now (thanx Vince!)
This band (and genre) should not be.
The new album… it was amazing in some aspects, terrible in others.
While I loved about 9/10ths of all the previous song, and own all five of the albums, the new one does sound… well, not Killswitch.
I personally think it’s O’Brien’s fault. It sounds too clean when it should be distorted, and distorted when it should be clean. Tracks 5 and 10 (The Return and Lost) are two great examples of that. GREAT songs, especially with doing something new in The Return… but the mixing was a real let down for me.
But the production took a lot of the heaviness out of Killswitch this time around. Never Again, and This is Goodbye were two amazing tracks, with deep, heavy matter and very impressive-sounding… but the rest of the album was mediocre. I think they need to take a break from touring; from each other. Then later come back for one more tour before they decide to work on their next material.
Then they need to come back and make a new album after they refresh themselves. Not AS a comback album, since those almost always fail. Just an album closer to AOJB.
Some people say that KsEII sounds like TEoHA and ADD… I don’t think so, really. The production changes that trudging sound that makes them sound like a hurricane ripping through a city. This time they seemed like a brief shower, with maybe three thunderclaps. Like how Howard refreshed them after Jesse, maybe someneeds to refresh Killswitch after Howard. I mean, in every interview he complains about how much he hates touring anyway. I love the guy’s voice, don’t get me wrong, but… maybe it’d be for the best?
Thanks for the video posting. I didnt even know that they filmed anything while they were in Canada on that tour. I was at that show in Toronto at Arrow Hall and I had a blast, other then watching protest the hero the rest of the night was great
New album sucks. I bought it the day it came out, and I’ve listened to it maybe only three times. The only reason I listened to it more than once was to try and force myself to like it because I really like their earlier stuff. Alive or Just Breathing will always be their best album, but they won’t ever make anything like it again. Jesse Leach brought a completely different writing force than Jones does. Most of Jesse’s songs were about god, but with Jones the band has songs mostly about heartbreak and love.
If anyone’s interested and hasn’t heard about it yet, check out out The Empire Shall Fall. Its Jesse’s new band, and it kicks ass.
Never cared for their music, I don’t know what people see in them, but they seem to be really nice guys so best of luck to them.
I heard the new KSE a handful of times, didnt hate it but never bothered to hear it again. it just sounded like a less interesting Killswitch.
Will I go see them if they are on a good bill? Yes, they are very tight live and their earlier songs impacted me enough to keep supporting. Howard Jones is still one of the best vocalist to come out of the metalcore genre, and one of my favorite metal vocalists in general. Adam D has written some of the most influential riffs of our generation, and helped produce and record a plethora of awesome albums.
Killswitch would have to make a radical left to to get people to not come to their shows. Also, think of all the people in other countries that havent heard them yet, and to them, these new albums are fresh to death as they used to say around here.
Influential riffs? What? Bore-laden generic fest is what it is.
I truely do enjoy killswitch…not like some of my friends to where that’s all they listen to, but if it comes up on the ipod I’ll crank it. This album was the biggest downer of the year though to me. Kind of like hatebreed syndrome..I mean it seems you really have to like them to enjoy the same 10 songs over and over and over again album after album. Mind you hatebreed was my favorite band throughout highschool…once the rise of brutality was released I sort of just stopped caring more or less, still love the band I buy a hardcopy of every disc, but it just doesn’t have that affect it once had.
I’m one of the few who likes this album.
To me, the biggest problem is that this record lacks length, aggressive sound, but other than that, it’s pretty decent. Some tracks are kinda like slow melodic sludge with shoegaze, spacey ambient thrown in, which are well-written tunes.
I can’t believe that some of you who dig Isis’s WR or Devin’s K! think this album is weak. Apparently, most metalheads don’t really appreciate atmospheric textured stuff.
this is it… read the lyrics, they just are dull no poetic touch no meaning or metaphores… just… your average words put into one phrase switched around in every song (sigh) the words are painfully boring omg jiust thinking about it is hard. but dont get me wrong i like the album its not bad just not great but starting over???? i mean come on what the hell? seeing this hurts because being a big enough fan and they touched me so much that im getting alive or jiust breathings lyrics and the kse skull tattooed on me oh and the kse anitials of a part on my class ring ya not engraved a part in the design wer ur names supposed to be… any one agree?