Album Review: Killswitch Engage - This Consequence

Time continues to pass through the hourglass, and it has now been twenty years since I first heard Killswitch Engage. Through a friend, I was made aware of "The End Of Heartache", which was a sensory overload I was not ready for at the time. I was still weaning myself onto heavier music, and the onslaught of power and emotion that album contained was more than I knew what to do with. I only started to figure it all out when the self-titled album came out, which then showed me the way to understanding what has become (at least to me) the one and only defining album of metalcore.

In the years since, I have found it interesting how Killswitch Engage proves to me something about the fickle nature of being a music fan. Albums like "Disarm The Descent" and "Atonement" are no different than the classics I still pull out regularly, but there is something in Jesse Leach's voice that doesn't hit me with the same weight as when Howard Jones was belting out these tortured numbers. Torture is the word of the moment, so what does this new album have in store for us?

There is an attempt to move in both directions at the same time. The opening "Abandon Us" is as melodic as the band has gotten in this era, and is immediately followed by the relentless blast-beats of "Discordant Nation". There's a bit of a whip-saw here, where it feels like the band is trying to pull themselves back from making an album as melodic, and dare I say 'mainstream', as that self-titled one. That's actually why I love that record as much as I do, so hearing Jesse do some of his best work only to have songs that don't allow him to shine is a bit of a disappointment.

The singles "Forever Aligned" and "I Believe" are in this melodic mold, and had me more excited for this album than any of the previous ones since Jesse's return. Killswitch Engage is at their best when they are both musically and emotionally heavy, and that doesn't work without the sing-along choruses they turned into staples of the genre. So when songs are written to be heavy without those melodies, it reminds me why "As Daylight Dies" is by far the weakest of that trilogy.

As the rest of the album unfolds, I'm finally hit by the metaphor I have been looking for for fifteen years now. Listening to the eras of Killswitch Engage is a bit like seeing the same show both on and off Broadway. The writing is the same, and the plot unfolds in the same way, but there is something about the scope of the bigger theaters that gives a completely different vibe. For as good as Jesse is at what he's doing, Howard simply made the band sound bigger. There was something quasi-operatic about "The End Of Heartache" that they have never been able to match since, including the other albums Howard fronted.

What that means is Killswitch Engage has not wavered a bit over these last four albums. They continue to make good Killswitch Engage music, with a few classic songs on each record, but none of them have raised the bar. In that way they are in the mold of an AC/DC or Motorhead; firmly reliable yet easy to forget after a while. I can tell you I enjoyed listening to this record, just as I have most of the others, but I can't tell you this album is necessary if you already know what has come before.

To be perfectly honest, now I'm even more curious what the project pairing Adam D and Howard once again is going to sound like. At least if there's a layer of nostalgia, my perspective might change.