Killswitch engage celebrate 20 years at the top.
O2 ACADEMY, BRISTOL
Massachusetts metalcore kings distil two decades of glory
WHEN THE HEADLINERS first played the Academy on the 2002 Roadrage tour, they did so with Five Point O in tow. Munich’s tenside are initially in danger of becoming similarly forgettable with their lumpen riffs failing to stir much emotion from an already swelling crowd. However, the more dynamic numbers like As Above So Below get a reaction beyond mere polite applause.
Tech-death shredders Revocation are an altogether more visceral prospect – David Davidson and his cohorts are some of the finest players out there. But while it’s great to see this kind of extremity be given a platform above the usual venues it inhabits, such monstrous compositions that twist, mutate and detonate leave most of the crowd either perplexed, stunned or somewhere in the middle.
Clearly the sold-out crowd is saving energy for the kind of communal, arms-aloft singalongs that you only get at KILLSWITCH ENGAGE shows. Coming out of the gates with new and recent offerings Unleashed, Hate By Design and The Crownless King to a fiendish response proves to doubters that they’ve still got the chops to deliver choruses that hit the spot. On the face of it, a band celebrating 20 years and eight albums playing for just over an hour seems extremely half-arsed. But with 17 songs played in rapid succession with full-blooded conviction, the Massachusetts pioneers deliver just the perfect balance. There’s delight at the surprise inclusions of This Is Absolution and
Self-revolution, and mandatory euphoria during the peaks of Rose Of Sharyn, My Curse and In Due Time.
For better or worse, the pace of the show leaves little time for Adam Dutkiewicz’s unique comic routine, leaving the fun to come from his awkward stage moves and trading excessive pinch harmonics with Joel Stroetzel. It’ll forever be a conundrum why the creators of some of the 21st century’s very best songs are still playing on the same stages as their first visit to the shores, but to the ardent congregation few things will ever beat the feeling of a sweaty singalong to
My Last Serenade no matter the pulpit. ADAM REES