The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Switching gears, slightly
Heavy band trying to evolve will always remain distinctly Killswitch Engage
Great pizza, loud audiences and a one-of-a-kind metal parody band are what comes to mind when Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D’Antonio thinks about Northeast Ohio.
“That area is always awesome, with some pretty great pizza,” said D’Antonio, calling from his Massachusetts home. “Cleveland has always been spastic as far as crowd response. It’s been kind of brutal sometimes, but I love it.
“I remember playing the Agora with a little-known band called Caveman. They were one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life, with a guy offstage who interprets and tells the audience what the caveman is saying. It’s hilarious. One time, a while ago, we went through hell and high water to get them on a show. All we had to do is buy them a case of beer.”
Killswitch Engage was set to perform at the Agora Theatre May 2, but the band this week announced they were canceling some upcoming shows, Cleveland included, because vocalist Jesse Leach needs to undergo surgery to correct an issue with his vocal chords. On its Facebook page, the band said refunds would be available at the original place of purchase.
Speaking before the shows were canceled, D’Antonio said that on the road the band has been busy recording its next full-length effort, which they hope to release later this year.
Despite the fact the outfit has been around since the turn of the century, this is the first time the band has recorded on the road. So far, there are 22 songs in the mix, with D’Antonio expecting a dozen to end up on the project — a followup to 2016’s “Incarnate.”
Stylistically, Killswitch Engage is, well, Killswitch Engage, meaning fans can expect a loud-and-heavy affair. He said the songs “go straight for the jugular.” However, also in the mix are a few tunes that find the band stretching its creative wings, with the bassist making comparisons to material found on 2013’s “Disarm the Descent.”
“I felt like that seemed very aggressive,” D’Antonio said of the album. “Then (with) ‘Incarnate,’ we dialed it back a little bit. This new one, I think is kind of a blend of both.
“It still has a lot of that raw, (expletive)-the-world type of vibe to it,” he continued. “But there are a few songs here and there that may surprise you — that are just a little bit off the beaten Killswitch path. We want people to know it’s us, but we don’t want to rehash the same crap over and over again. That’s a great way to kill your band.”
Another great way to, if not kill, than perhaps maim or confuse your band’s fan base is to make too much of a stylistic change. For the Grammy Award-nominated act, which has pushed metalcore as far as possible into the mainstream, that would mean doing something drastic.
What comes to mind is something akin to the socalled “Black Album,” Metallica’s 1991 self-titled affair with a black cover that is seen by some as the band watering down its sound to attract a greater audience. With a bitterness in his voice, D’Antonio promised fans won’t ever have to live through that from Killswitch Engage.
“Everyone aspires to have ‘Black Album’ type of sales, for sure.” he said. “I’m not going to say it would be the worst thing in the world, but that was a weird turn for that band. I’ve grown to like it, but going from ‘…And Justice for All,’ with this crazy, chaotic awesome complexity, to the stripped-down ‘Black Album,’ it hurt me.
“It was like, ‘Wow, my favorite band isn’t doing my favorite things anymore.’ I kind of hope we don’t do that to our fans. We’ve got some mainstream stuff without really trying, and I feel like when you try, it shows dramatically.”