Killswitch Engage

[Pedrito]

Alive or Just Breathing is a real favourite for me. I fell away from them after the next album, I suppose there was a lot of style of music aroubd at the time, but Breathing has always stood the test of time.

Anything else in the catalogue worth a gander?

[Trev]

I liked End of Heartache, gave the one after that a chance and just seemed to be more of the same and anything I've heard since sticks to the formula

I'd say check out the Times of Grace album though that Leach and Dutkiewicz had, I've enjoyed that more than any post AOJB material

[Pedrito]

Listening to it here. The singer started hamming up the voice a bit more. That said, it sounds interesting, will give it a go..cheers man

[astfgyl]

I'd usually listen to AOJB at least once in the year but that is the beginning and the end of it for me. Couldn't stand Howard Jones' voice at all.

[Nail_Bombed]

Their first S/T album on Trustkill Records (edit.... Ferret Records) is well worth a listen. Bit dirtier than AOJB, but as good IMO. Think there was a remastering done by Roadrunner, but it didn't gel as well as the original output.

Soilborn is a chooon.

[Circlepit]

End of heartache has some very well written songs. Overall it's a really good listen.
However Howard Jones and his insistence on cupping the mic is off putting. As for that cape wearing flute....

[Giggles]

Funny, I was listening to End of Heartache last week and tbought about making a thread. Serious production on that album, the guitars sound amazing. I'm a fan of both Howard's voice and the cape shenanigans.

[Pedrito]

First album sounds very cool here. Interesting that Andy Sneap produced Alive or Just Breathing and you get what you paid for with a lad like that. The vocals mix beautifully together. Heavy when it needs to be and opens up then for the more airy bit. Funny enough, the recent Judas Priest had the same perfect balance. Also.the fat is trimmed, no oul Celine Dion warbling, just perfectly in the pocket like a seasoned boxer.

[astfgyl]

Really don't like Andy Sneap's production style. It's just too good or something. I had no idea he produced AOJB though and that sounds great so that's me told.

[mugz]

02 was the first year people born in the late 70s to about 83 were putting out their own music based on what they heard in the 80s and 90s, so you got a little 80s soloing, a little 90s harder edge like gothenburg stuff, and then to get a cd out you'd have to shoehorn all that into a nu-metal form to sell more than 3 copies. so kse pulse ultra slipknot trivium exit ten parkway drive unearth all got going or appeared properly around the 02/03 mark. It was nearly justifying to hear stuff come out where you could hear exactly what albums those bands liked that you liked too as influences, but ultimately it was more for the people who were 15 or 16 in 03 to latch onto, to have their nirvana fnm aic moment, and hear 80s thrash for the first time, albeit indirectly, or 90s mdm etc, but for anyone a bit older, you could just listen to kreator or in flames instead.

longwinded way of saying 'good for a gateway album', but bad because apart from those first 2 albums they did nothing of note despite having shown they had the chops and influences to do something great with the 00s metal resurgence.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Well, one of them went on to produce Believer's come-back albums. That was pretty note-worthy in my book, first gold star they ever got from me!

I never managed to get into them, even in my brief "Shadows Fall are kinda cool" phase, KSE never did it for me.

[Pedrito]

02 was the first year people born in the late 70s to about 83 were putting out their own music based on what they heard in the 80s and 90s, so you got a little 80s soloing, a little 90s harder edge like gothenburg stuff, and then to get a cd out you'd have to shoehorn all that into a nu-metal form to sell more than 3 copies. so kse pulse ultra slipknot trivium exit ten parkway drive unearth all got going or appeared properly around the 02/03 mark. It was nearly justifying to hear stuff come out where you could hear exactly what albums those bands liked that you liked too as influences, but ultimately it was more for the people who were 15 or 16 in 03 to latch onto, to have their nirvana fnm aic moment, and hear 80s thrash for the first time, albeit indirectly, or 90s mdm etc, but for anyone a bit older, you could just listen to kreator or in flames instead.

longwinded way of saying 'good for a gateway album', but bad because apart from those first 2 albums they did nothing of note despite having shown they had the chops and influences to do something great with the 00s metal resurgence.

I hear what you're saying and from the evidence I've heard, the first 2 albums seem to be just far purer efforts, not pandering to an audience as such. I never got into any of that stuff like Trivium etc. Alive or Just Breathing I like simply because I just think it is a really, really intense, well written slab of music. Indeed the first time I ever saw a video by the band was yesterday so I haven't been taken in by the scene that surrounded them at all.

In terms of Gateway, and we hear this a lot, now I'm not goimg to be a spa and say there isn't stuff that leads to other stuff and I get the sentiment, but my ultimate point would be that this 'Gateway' is far more fluid than we think. Where does the gateway evetually lead to? Some guy in his bedroom producing 50 cassettes for his in group, the true underground and all that waffle? Yes, there is definitely some amazing Underground music, or music that isn't going to be to the taste of a vast swathe of people, but then there's also the security of the underground, of not popping your head above the parapet and trying something that doesn't just stay conservative to every trope and cliché that makes up that scene.

Again, there is no hard and fast to this, as far as I'm concerned, and in that sense, I wouldn't see a really well put together, excellent album like AOJB in terms of Gateway or anything of the likes. I think it's really difficult to produce an album that would tick all them boxes. It's like the idea that we could all write a Beatles song until you sit down and actually try...yeah it's not happening.

[mugz]

02 was the first year people born in the late 70s to about 83 were putting out their own music based on what they heard in the 80s and 90s, so you got a little 80s soloing, a little 90s harder edge like gothenburg stuff, and then to get a cd out you'd have to shoehorn all that into a nu-metal form to sell more than 3 copies. so kse pulse ultra slipknot trivium exit ten parkway drive unearth all got going or appeared properly around the 02/03 mark. It was nearly justifying to hear stuff come out where you could hear exactly what albums those bands liked that you liked too as influences, but ultimately it was more for the people who were 15 or 16 in 03 to latch onto, to have their nirvana fnm aic moment, and hear 80s thrash for the first time, albeit indirectly, or 90s mdm etc, but for anyone a bit older, you could just listen to kreator or in flames instead.

longwinded way of saying 'good for a gateway album', but bad because apart from those first 2 albums they did nothing of note despite having shown they had the chops and influences to do something great with the 00s metal resurgence.

I hear what you're saying and from the evidence I've heard, the first 2 albums seem to be just far purer efforts, not pandering to an audience as such. I never got into any of that stuff like Trivium etc. Alive or Just Breathing I like simply because I just think it is a really, really intense, well written slab of music. Indeed the first time I ever saw a video by the band was yesterday so I haven't been taken in by the scene that surrounded them at all.

In terms of Gateway, and we hear this a lot, now I'm not goimg to be a spa and say there isn't stuff that leads to other stuff and I get the sentiment, but my ultimate point would be that this 'Gateway' is far more fluid than we think. Where does the gateway evetually lead to? Some guy in his bedroom producing 50 cassettes for his in group, the true underground and all that waffle? Yes, there is definitely some amazing Underground music, or music that isn't going to be to the taste of a vast swathe of people, but then there's also the security of the underground, of not popping your head above the parapet and trying something that doesn't just stay conservative to every trope and cliché that makes up that scene.

Again, there is no hard and fast to this, as far as I'm concerned, and in that sense, I wouldn't see a really well put together, excellent album like AOJB in terms of Gateway or anything of the likes. I think it's really difficult to produce an album that would tick all them boxes. It's like the idea that we could all write a Beatles song until you sit down and actually try...yeah it's not happening.

Late 2002 was when the 00s metal resurgence really started, but not just in terms of KSE, but in every subgenre of metal, the late genxers looked at Korn and NIN and numetal,, and said no no no, Carcass matters, In Flames matters, Destruction matters. So they wanted to turn euro and american obscure thrash like Anacrusis or Believer (KSE has mentioned these two bands among others) into something fresh and heavy and melodic for the 00s, and for the outright millennials hitting their teens in the long summer of 2003.

it was nearly a great mini epoch from 02-05, but like everything else it never quite worked properly and only cements in the remembering. But specifically on topic, I wouldn't turn off the first 2 KSE albums if I was at someone's house, and I would pick up both if they were 10-12 euros in Tower. Actually I'm pretty sure I have 2 copies of alive or just breathing. Im a sucker for a digipack and a bonus dvd 

Dutkiwiecz (sp) is a first rate producer and guitarist, and I somewhat enjoy their drummer too, but they did the music career thing, which usually means metal by numbers, albeit they're far from the only ones. But yes, the first 2 albums are well above average.