KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
‘AS DAYLIGHT DIES’
(ROADRUNNER)

Rating: [9]
Add Your Comments


It really should be getting boring by now. Four albums of metallic and melodic pre-screamo post-hardcore metal for the masses should be enough for the punters and the press alike. A backlash, if not already forthcoming, should be ready and waiting to greet any band who have the temerity to make records that affirm and enhance their original sound while breaking limited new ground. Fans should stray to the hot new sound and critics should vehemently froth and decry for all to hear. For any other band it would mean trouble. But for Killswitch Engage it is not. Their fourth record is nothing new, nothing revolutionary, and certainly nothing shocking – and from that description it sounds tired, tawdry and tepid. It is anything but.
‘Daylight Dies’ opens the album with trademark stomp and bombast, a blitz-like attack with chugging riffs and blasting vocals, and it takes until third track ‘The Arms Of Sorrow’ for the initial rush to subside, as the band introduce the more serene style for which they are known. This gives frontman Howard Jones the chance to showcase his vocal lift and register while guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz and company playfully throw a Botch-esque breakbeat under the singer to keep the undercarriage undulating, and ensure the track veers away from aping ‘Rose Of Sharyn’. It does sail close and of course it is no comparison to the stellar ‘My Last Serenade’, but the song is another excellent addition to the band’s burgeoning canon. The fifth track of 11 laid down, ‘My Curse’, with its sweetly picked guitar line and sulphurous mid-sections, provides the hook on which the whole album can hang. Epic, expansive and emotive, the effort is vintage Killswitch, the distilled essence of a band at their most musically articulate and confident. Truly outstanding. Following this, as a moment of poignancy sixth cut ‘For You’ is difficult to beat; Jones contemplates his life, his faith, and his position in the world more openly than on previous occasions, being eloquent but not exclusive, being deeply personal yet utterly universal.
These moments and more contribute to another album that defies logic from Killswitch Engage. How can they keep their sound so similar but so fresh? How do they keep their ship so steady? How can they keep getting better? Who knows. What is obvious is that Killswitch Engage are different, their sound matures but still retains all elements of its evolution; they laugh, joke, and act the fool, but their music is both credible and serious. Simply put, the rules do not apply to the Massachusetts quintet.
‘As Daylight Dies’ is similar to previous efforts, even samey at times, but it still sounds stunning. It should not make sense. It does.