I am going to let you into a little secret, but please don’t tell anyone: there was actually a time when I liked Killswitch Engage. There. I said it. Of course that was before the band got shot of their good singer (Jesse Leach) and then stuck to the formula they’d developed like glue, stripping all sense of originality and surprise from their music.
Happily Jesse Leach has returned to the fray with a new band which sounds only occasionally like his former outfit and which generally surpasses it in all respects. Opening with the mighty ‘Awaken’ which melds clean vocals and deathly screaming to a metallic framework which veers between In Flames and Meshuggah to create a huge sounding (thanks to an exemplary production job) metal gem that is as cerebral as it is catchy. It is, quite simply, an awesome album opener that promises great, great things. ‘Lords of war’ opens with some nice guitar interplay, before shredding the listener’s unfortunate face off in a melee of pounding drums and intense vocals, reminding me once more just how good Jesse is when on top form. Obviously coming from a much more metal place than KSE, ‘Lords of war’ even features a blinding solo in the bridge which is encouraging for more old-school fans such as myself. ‘Voices forming weapons’ is a more melodic affair, although still as angry as a Pitbull with its manhood trapped in a tin-opener, and after a clean vocal opening, Jesse succeeds in sounding even more inhuman than ever. The clean vocal on the chorus is probably the closest the band get to a KSE-style moment, but even then the band sound suitably different to avoid any serious comparison.
‘Choir of angels’ revives the death metal comparisons, with the drums doing double duty, Jesse’s throat seemingly hitting the mic in chunks and the guitarists proving themselves to be extremely efficient when it comes to neck-snapping riffs and fills. ‘We the people’ may have a vaguely humorous title, but there’s nothing humorous behind the heavy guitars, vein-popping vocals and multiple pace and style changes that take place throughout the track. ‘These colours bleed’ is a straight up rocker, brutal and to the point. It slams like no other and is guaranteed to be a live favourite. ‘Our own’, meanwhile, returns to the Meshuggah comparisons with its vicious stop-start riffs and down-tuned styling – it’s a hard track that sees the band stretching their abilities, much as they do on every track here. That just leaves final track, ‘the kingdom’ to bring the record to its tumultuous close with pitch harmonics, sludge riffs and Jesse’s maxed out vocals bringing the whole thing to a shuddering halt. It’s one of the best tracks on the record and it’s a testament to the bands skill that there is no drop in quality over the album and no obvious weak points to pick on.
I’ll be honest, my heart sank when I saw the words Killswitch Engage, but this band have so much more to offer than KSE do. Picking on multiple styles, this is still a metal album first and foremost and the band never forget that their primary job is to get the adrenalin flowing. With an excellent sound and Jesse Leach proving himself, once again, to be one of the best of the new wave of heavy metal vocalists, The Empire Shall Fall deserve to be huge. This is simply a fantastic, brutal debut that kicks serious amounts of ass. Nice one!
