Customer Reviews

Killswitch Engage

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I jumped at the chance to pre-order this album touted as, "The Most Anticipated Album of 2009"... and unfortunately I am very dissapointed. I had very high expectations for this album. KSE set the bar exceptionally high due to their previous outstanding albums. I would give this album a 4 star rating if the production and song writing was better. I am a big fan of KSE's previous releases, The End of the Heartache, Alive or Just Breathing and As Daylight Dies. In fact they were my favorite band in this genre.

Essentially... you just don't get the "WOW" factor from this album. Unfortunately there is not one standout song on the album however, I do like "A Light in a Darkened World" and a few others. As usual Howard's vocals are awesome. His range is incredible!

The song writing is ok but is not as strong as their previous albums. The production on this album is obviously subpar (doesn't sound crisp and clear) and the guitars sound muffled. New producer Brendan O'Brien seems to have eliminated a lot of the strong, crisp & crunchy KSE guitar sounds, which makes ALL of their previous albums sound so good. Fortunately the drumming on this album sounds great.

In summary, anybody who is a KSE fan would agree that this is not their best effort to date. With that being said, this is definitely not a bad album. The album is one notch above average(therefore 3-4 stars) and does have some extraordinary moments if you listen very closely for them.

I remember when i first heard As Daylight Dies, I fell instantly in love with it. It was a little different than their previous work, but great none the less.

Now onto their second self titled album. On first listen i was extremely disapointed. Unlike the previous album, there wasn't any songs that stood out and made me think this is an awesome song. There really isn't stand out songs. There just seems to be an album full of mediocricy.

After many listens there are a few songs that i like, but there are also other not so great songs. Another problem i have is that some of the lyrics seem to be written by a teenager. In the song "starting over", which is one of the worst songs on the album, Howard sings "Can we start again, Go back in time to where we started". To me it just doesn't sound right at all.

Overall, I think this is their weakest effort and I am not digging the new direction they are going.

I agree with some of the other reviewers. This is not the same Killswitch, at all. The songs are boring and have no memorable material. They're starting to sound like the average "teeny bop" metal band. Sorry, guys. I used to be a big fan. But, your last two albums didn't cut it for me.

Sincerely
ex-kse fan

No, they haven't gone soft. In fact, the album is full of riffs and screaming, but that was never what made KsE particularly appealing. Their insightful lyrics, commanding vocals, and catchy, but aggressive riffs made them a force to be reckoned with. However, this time around, they lack all of these elements. The hooks sound forced, the singing sounds weak, and the songwriting is just plain boring. Their last album wasn't too great, but this one is even worse, leaving me to believe that the heartache didn't end in 2004, but began sometime in 2006 and is only getting worse. Let's just hope that the final track "This Is Goodbye" is not just a song title, but a letter of resignation.

I'm not sure what happened with this album. Before it was released the band called it their experimental album...but all I see is them experimenting with lazy songwriting and hiring an awful producer to help ruin the songs further. Who was complaining about their production on the previous albums? This is a classic case of "If it's not broken, don't fix it!"

Now normally Killswitch Engage produce albums that are very high quality in terms of songwriting, production, performances, and artwork/packaging. Almost everything about this album feels rushed, under-developed, and just plain lazy. Let's start with the visuals. The cover art is their worst by far and it's obvious Mike was just going through the motions creating it. He also didn't seem to have any real reason for putting a giant cat face puking curly lines on the album cover...exept to show the listener that they were not taking this album very seriously. If a giant cat face is the extent of his artistic creativity these days...maybe he shouldn't be an artist any longer. I also was immediately critical of the band's choice to just self-title the album. Usually when bands do that it means they're too lazy to come up with a title...but I'll forgive any band for doing it once. Killswitch Engage have now done it twice. How hard is it to come up with a title? They could have even used one of the song titles for the name of the album and that would have been a big improvement.

As for the music...it's definitely Killswitch Engage sounding material but many songs seem a bit rushed and uninspired. My biggest complaint is the production. Brendan O'Brien gives everything a very muddy sound, while making the drums too loud, the guitars/vocals too soft, and even letting some obvious clipping be heard on the song "I Would Do Anything". He's done such an awful job here and I have no idea how overrated hack producers like him find work, or how Adam and the gang approved the mix. If the production were in the hands of Adam only, he would have made this album much more listenable and it would have sounded more like what we've come to know and love from KSE. I really hope the band re-mixes this one day as I feel it would be a big improvement. It'll never be the band's best album, but it'll at least push it closer to the quality of their other work.

There are some good points to the album, however. Howard's vocals really shine once again, proving his range as a vocalist in both singing and screaming. Justin also provides another solid drum performance, with some nice fills and double bass work. The rest of the band do a decent job as well, it's just hard to hear what they're doing in the awful mix.

Overall I'd give this a 2 (or maybe a 3 on a good day) out of 5 stars. It's a listenable album but easily the band's worst effort to date. I hope the band is able to re-group and really focus on writing better songs next time around, while producing the effort themselves. After hearing the songs Adam wrote with the Times of Grace project, it's obvious he's still got some very good songs left in him to write. If the band learns from the mistakes of this album I think they can come back stronger than ever. And if not...maybe there will be another Times of Grace album to look forward to one day.

This new CD from Killswitch shows off the vocals of Howard Jones more than anything else. There is a lot more melodic singing and less brutal screaming than on previous efforts. I really like that they did that because Howard is one of my favorite rock singers and his range is awesome. The usual catchy chorus and screamed verse is definitely still the blueprint here. In that regard, things seem a little too similar. But that's what everyone likes about Killswitch so it won't disappoint the fans. I was satisfied.

Ok, I am going to keep this short and to the point. This album should have never come out. KSE were starting to go down hill on Daylight Dies as there were only a couple of good songs on that record, and also because they were starting to lose their trademark melodic sound. This band does not really suit Howard the more I listen to them and he needs to go back to Blood Has Been Shed and write a new record(a way better band to begin with). Jesse Leach (from the bands Corrin and nothing stays gold) was the better singer here, and the first two KSE records were great from both the vocal and musical standpoints because of it. Their 3rd album The End of Heartache was still very good and I still enjoy it. And Finally to the point I really need to make if I am being totally honest, I don't really think that KSE should have even been started in the first place because the old band Aftershock should never have broken up, and was so much better. Buy their 2 disc set Propaganda that has all of their recordings and you will see where KSE got their signature western mass metal-core sound from. Joel Strozel did his best guitar work in Aftershock and Toby(Adam's Brother) was a beast on the mic. I would say that Aftershock was the band that The Acacia Strain took after in terms of sound, and were just as influenced buy them as KSE was(acacia took the brutality and KSE took the melody). You can even here some Aftershock influence on the fist Ligeia album. Western Mass metal-core all day man, Devil's Head Records son, know your Hardcore history.

I LOVE Killswitch, personally...but this album just doesn't do it for me as the last four albums did, not to mention a repeat in the name...as if to say, "Hey, this is Killswitch Engage...NOW." It really is a great album overall, but if you pick it apart, the mixing is TERRIBLE (vocals and guitars behind bass and, most of all, drums), and I found myself listening to the same song over and over again.

I DID enjoy it, and there are a few songs with GREAT hooks. I do think Howard could have sung more than four different notes on every single chorus, however.

Is Adam Dutkiewicz running out of fresh ideas? I think so.

I remember seeing KSE when they opened up for slayer a few years ago and they had a great catalog of music, too bad they have only added unintelligent garbage for the last few albums and this one continues the downward spiral. Save your time and go listen to something else. Just plain sad.

There were a few raised eyebrows when word got out that Killswitch Engage tapped big-time producer Brendan O'Brien to record their new album alongside the band's guitarist and longtime producer, Adam Dutkiewicz. O'Brien is known for his work with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Incubus, The Offspring, Pearl Jam and AC/DC. Was Killswitch following in the footsteps of their labelmates Nickelback, selling out and going soft in pursuit of radio play and elusive mainstream success? Or was this a sign that the band was finally listening to fans and critics who think it's time they moved beyond their "metalcore" sound? The answer to both questions, for better or worse, appears to be a resounding "No." Any concerns about Killswitch going soft are silenced in the first few seconds of this album as the band tears into the thundering "Never Again." That song, along with "The Forgotten," "Reckoning," and "I Would Do Anything" are among the heaviest songs Killswitch have ever made. Even the first single, "Starting Over," is very much in the vein of "The End Of Heartache" and "My Curse," meaning it won't be on playlists with Taylor Swift or the Jonas Brothers anytime soon.

Truth be told, "Killswitch Engage" does not sound radically different from the band's previous releases, and what differences exist are fairly subtle. Mike D'Antonio's bass lines and the guitar work of Joel Stroetzel and Adam Dutkiewicz are all quintessential Killswitch. No doubt that's because Dutkiewicz recorded all the guitar and bass parts, while O'Brien oversaw drums and vocals, where the biggest changes are heard. The drums really stand out on this album; Justin Foley's complex, off-time rhythms make every song more interesting. He might be the most underrated drummer in metal. But the most impressive performance on the album is that of vocalist Howard Jones, who has said that O'Brien pushed him to try things he hadn't done before. The results are impressive. Jones' hardcore screams are as strong as ever, and in his clean singing he adds soft crooning ("The Return," "Take Me Away") to the rich, operatic bellowing he's best known for. O'Brien's use of heavily layered, almost choral harmonies is a nice addition to Killswitch's vocal sound. Lyrically, Jones still dabbles in love-gone-wrong songs like "Starting Over" and "The Return," but almost gone from this record are the positive, uplifting, Christian-influenced lyrics found on previous Killswitch records ("Light In A Darkened World" is about the only song in that vein.) Instead, Jones goes to the dark side, singing songs of anger ("Never Again"), betrayal ("The Forgotten," "Reckoning"), and grief ("Lost," "I Would Do Anything," "This Is Goodbye"). It sounds like he's exorcising some serious demons on this record, and it's his best work yet.

No doubt some will be disappointed that the new Killswitch Engage album still sounds like, well, Killswitch Engage. Maybe it's time to just accept that Killswitch Engage is a "metalcore" band, maybe even THE metalcore band. It's what they do, and they do it well. It's not their fault that hordes of inferior bands have copied their sound and made a mockery of it. Those who wish the band would change should be careful what they wish for; usually when a band tries to be something they're not, the results are unpleasant. (Examples: Metallica's "St. Anger," U2's "Pop," and anything Rush made after "Moving Pictures" in their Eighties' new wave phase. Ugh.)

The bonus edition includes a DVD featuring with interviews and answers to fan-submitted questions. It's amusing, but of more interest are the four bonus CD tracks: a new, environmentally themed song called "In A Dead World" and live versions of "Rose Of Sharyn," "My Curse" and "Holy Diver" that showcase Killswitch at their very best, playing in front of a roaring crowd. They should do a live album or another concert DVD someday.