By Chris Nixon
Union-Tribune
March 23, 2007
Anchored by the tough, post-industrial cities of Springfield and Holyoke, Western Massachusetts served as a desperate stage for teens growing up in the area during the '80s. Kids raised in the Connecticut River Valley had long winters, rundown suburbs and crumbling inner cities as backdrops to their daily lives.
Killswitch Engage straddles the border between metal and melody. The band's mainstream rock melodies pushed record sales on its first three albums beyond 100,000, with 2004's “The End of Heartache” reaching almost half a million units moved.
The soundtrack was even worse. Beyond the cookie-cutter pop spoon-fed by radio stations, most local bands fell neatly into one of two categories: post-hippie troubadours strumming formulaic folk songs, or tacky cover bands hanging on to dreams of rock stardom by a fingernail.
Out of the dissonance came metalcore, a merging of metal angst and hardcore, lo-fi punk. Western Massachusetts emerged as a hub for disenchanted kids forming garage metalcore bands. One of those bands was a couple of kids calling themselves Killswitch Engage.
After many years, countless miles on the road and long hours crafting a sound in the studio, the five-piece band evolved into the one you see today. With the addition of current singer Howard Jones (whose menacing stage presence couldn't be further from the typically frail English pop star of the '80s) and the precise beats of drummer Justin Foley, KSE is beginning to make the journey from the garage to the living-room stereo. These five guys from Western Mass seem well-equipped to make the trek.
DATEBOOK
Killswitch Engage, with Dragonforce, Chimaira and He Is Legend
7:30 tonight; SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., Suite I, Midway District
$22, (619) 226-7662
Killswitch Engage manages to straddle the border between metal and melody. In the insular world of metal, the tattooed masses might look down their pierced noses at KSE's accessible choruses. On the 2005 DVD “(Set This) World Ablaze,” one of the band's touring mates jokingly calls Killswitch the “Def Leppard of metal.” But the same mainstream rock melodies pushed record sales on their first three albums over 100,000, with 2004's “The End of Heartache” reaching almost half a million units moved.
“We really don't get a lot of flak (from harder bands),” said Jones, resting up before a show in Florida recently. “We're influenced by a lot of metal, and we're influenced by a lot of melody. I'm sure there are straight metal bands that don't care for what we're doing. Then again, there are probably a lot that like us.
“Same with us: We like a lot of metal bands, but we listen to everything other than metal, too. That's what helps round us out. Adding the melody . . . keeps the music from becoming monotonous.”
After basically two straight years of touring, the band decided to let the creative well refill with an eight-month break last year.
“You think clearer when you're not living out of a suitcase and a moving tube for a couple of years,” Jones said. “You're basically living in a large soda can. We got to take a nice little break, and I think that really changed the writing and recording of the (new) album. Everyone was mentally in a much better place.”
Advertisement As fall approached, Killswitch's record label, Roadrunner, inquired about new material. It didn't take KSE long to oblige. After just two weeks of writing and six weeks in the studio, Killswitch Engage emerged with its fourth studio album, “As Daylight Dies.” Released last November, the disc combines Pantera, Iron Maiden and Faith No More-era Mike Patton into 11 tracks of infectious metal.
“I guess it's easy to relate to,” said Jones. “Our lyrics are pretty positive, and I think kids just click with it and connect. You never know what to expect when you're a band. You could have five people come to see you or 500. We've just gotten real lucky.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
