Killswitch Engage have been called the greatest metalcore band of all time by at least one person; it sounds lacklustre, but it’s hard to corroborate that fact. Their back catalogue is nearly flawless and their latest record, This Consequence, just adds more bangers to their pristine discography. Their live show is just an extension of how well polished and skilled they are and with an all-star lineup featuring Decapitated, Fit For An Autopsy and Hatebreed, their show in Manchester was a night to be remembered.
Decapitated was first and due to an early start, the audience was fairly sparse but the few people there got the show started on a high. This set was largely made up of tracks from Cancer Culture, a great record in its own right but it would have been nice to hear ‘Day 69’ again. There’s really not a great deal to talk about, considering the set was only 6 songs long but the band were airtight due to the godlike drumming of James Stewart and the punishing, complex guitar work of Vogg.
‘Spheres of Madness’ was the obvious highlight of the set and brand new vocalist Eemeli Bodde did the song justice as he stalked the stage with brilliant stage presence and power. Hopefully, this show wins over the metalcore crowd and introduces them to the world of technical death metal and we see some new fans next time they come back to Manchester.
Next up was Fit For An Autopsy, arguably the heaviest band on the bill. Their set was a quintessential slab of thick chunky death metal with all the fixings, but a significantly large portion of sweet, sweet breakdowns. The band even treated the audience to a sweet and salty new song entitled ‘It Comes For You,’ a track that inspired all kinds of wild and crazy pits throughout the audience.
The highlight of their set was closer ‘Far From Heaven,’ a legato-driven deathcore masterpiece that features so much technical precision and skill that it may as well be a tech death song. It’s one of the many complex tracks they have alongside the likes of the Gojira-tinged ‘Pandora’ and the blistering insanity of ‘The Sea of Tragic Beasts‘. Their last show with Thy Art is Murder featured a less than stellar mix and it just goes to show that you can have all the best songs in the world, but it means nothing if you don’t have the right mix. Fortunately, everyone’s sound at this show was absolutely incredible and just kept building hype for what was about to come.
Hatebreed were up next, and to call the audience hyped would be a massive understatement. Appearing just a week before their freshly announced intimate show at The Star and Garter, a show RAMzine won’t be attending for the sake of self-preservation, Hatebreed were the biggest draw outside of Killswitch Engage, and they didn’t disappoint.
Hatebreed is a band that I’ve unfairly dismissed for many years as a generic hardcore band, and having witnessed them firsthand now, I can safely say I was wrong. Frontman Jamey Jasta puts in the work to get the crowd moving and singing as he belts out mantras of positivity on tracks like ‘I Will Be Heard’ and ‘Born To Bleed’. The pits were insane and the crowdsurfers were out in full force during the violent rock club dance anthems like the infectious ‘Destroy Everything’ and the fast paced thrasher anthem, ‘As Die Hard As They Come’.
Later in the set Jamey asked the important question, “Who’s coming out of Mosh retirement?” and a legion of bald shorts-wearing men threw down their big coats and jumped into the pit headfirst like an atomic bomb being dropped on an unsuspecting crowd for ‘Looking Down The Barrel Of Today’. Being that I’m too short to see over the crowd, I just have to assume that’s what happened. Tell us in the comments if you threw down.
Finally, Killswitch Engage came on to rapturous applause from the gigantic crowd of this sold out show. Opening with the legato-laden rager of ‘Strength Of The Mind,’ Killswitch Engage asserted dominance very early, with Jesse Leach’s screams maintaining the same power and clarity he’s had since the very early days of the band. Following that was the Howard Jones-era anthem, ‘Rose Of Sharyn,’ a certified metalcore classic and a showcase of the band’s abilities to write brilliantly accessible but still nuanced and complex tracks that have stood the test of time, irrefutably proven by the whole crowd screaming every single word at the top of their lungs.
There’s an unserious vibe throughout the show with guitarist Adam D regularly goofing off and just generally chatting light-hearted crap with the audience in between songs. “I know how much you guys love that word, it’s awesome” mused Adam as the Manchester crowd passionately chanted the C word with all the love it could muster. It’s important to balance seriousness with humour, which is a skill not every band can master, but Killswitch have nailed it.
The main question many people have before going to a Killswitch show is “Can Jesse do Howard’s stuff” and the answer is absolutely! Howard will always be a massive part of Killswitch history, and his songs are still beloved. Jesse puts in all the effort possible to make them authentic to the original version while putting his spin on them. His version of classics like ‘This Is Absolution’ and ‘This Fire’ have all the same fire they did from Howard. Jesse could easily have opted to sticking to tracks from the albums he was on and just doing ‘My Curse’ and ‘End Of Heartache’ but, like an absolute champ, he put the effort in to keep these tracks alive.
Killswitch Engage’s latest album was a focal point of the show. The latest album isn’t my favourite from a mix standpoint but the live show more than makes up for that. Tracks like ‘Broken Glass’ are monstrously heavy and showcase that burning aggression we’ve come to love. The one-two punch of ‘The Signal Fire,’ a track that features Howard Jones, and ‘I Believe’ made up the sing-along portion of the show; the classic piece of metalcore positivity circulated throughout the room as if it was cold air through an air conditioner, which was not in operation through this insanely hot show.
The latter portion of the show featured back-to-back rock club staples. Within the space of 15 minutes, we heard ‘My Curse,’ ‘End of Heartache’ and ‘My Last Serenade,’ three tracks that made thousands of people fall in love with metal. A true collection of masterpieces performed by a band still at the height of their powers and destined to go down as one of the greats in the genre.
Killswitch Engage will always be a glorious beacon of hope in a genre that some argue is struggling to maintain its identity. Metalcore may have moved away from its roots somewhat but we can always rely on a masterful band like Killswitch Engage to come back every few years with a new collection of bangers to be performed by a stellar team of legends.
