Killswitch Engage is an
American metalcore band from Westfield,
Massachusetts
, formed in 1999. Founded in the following
disbandment of the bands
Overcast
and
Aftershock. Killswitch
Engage's lineup consists of vocalist
Howard Jones, bassist
Mike D'Antonio, guitarists
Joel Stroetzel and
Adam Dutkiewicz, and drummer
Justin Foley, the band has released five
studio albums and one
DVD.
Killswitch Engage rose to fame with its 2004 release
The End of Heartache, which peaked
at number 21 on the
Billboard 200, and
was
certified gold in December
2007 for over 500,000 shipments in the United States. The title
track, "The End of Heartache", was nominated for a
Grammy Award in 2005, and a live DVD titled
World Ablaze was
released in 2005.
Killswitch Engage have attended festivals
such as Wacken Open
Air
, Reading and
Leeds Festivals, Ozzfest, Download Festival, Rock on the Range, Mayhem Festival, and the Australian Soundwave
Festival. The band released their
self-titled studio album, on
June 30, 2009, on the same day it was released, their previous
album
As Daylight Dies was
certified gold in the United States. This means, along with
The
End of Heartache going gold as well, that their selft-titled
fifth album has offically sold over 1 million albums in the United
States.
MTV has refered to Killswitch Engage as
"one of the founders of metalcore".
History
Early years (1998–2000)
Following the break-up of his band,
Overcast, in 1998 bassist
Mike D'Antonio jammed with
Aftershock guitarist
Adam Dutkiewicz. As both bands had
disbanded, Dutkiewicz recruited guitarist
Joel Stroetzel from Aftershock, and
Jesse Leach of Nothing Stays Gold as vocalist.
Former Overcast vocalist
Brian Fair was
considered for the role, but he was unable to join due to
obligations with his band
Shadows Fall.
D'Antonio said the band was initially going to be for fun and a
"thing to do on the side".
The band's name originated from the break-up of Overcast and
Aftershock, using aspects that pushed and elevated the band and
putting the combination into a new category. D'Antonio commented
"basically shutting everything down that we once knew and starting
over. Killswitch, which is like turning everything off. Like if
someone’s hand gets caught in something in a metal working shop the
foreman will press one button that will turn off the machines. A
killswitch. Then the engage is just turning it back on or something
like that". The band got their name from an episode of the
television series
The X Files entitled
Kill Switch, written by
William Gibson. Gibson had actually named
this episode for industrial band
Kill Switch...Klick after a chance
meeting on a book tour. The two bands are otherwise
unrelated.
Signed to a label, self-titled and Alive or Just
Breathing (2000–2002)
While playing shows and selling demos, Mike D was doing Ferret
music ads and called up Carl from Ferret and told him about
Killswitch his current project then signed the deal. The band
released its
self-titled debut
album, and although initially the album was not a financial
success and didn't enter any charts, it garnered the interest of
Ferret Music founder Carl Severson. Severson, who worked at
Roadrunner Records at the time,
handed
Killswitch Engage to several Roadrunner
representatives. An
A&R of the company,
Mike Gitter, contacted D'Antonio and attended several of the band's
shows, and his interest led him to offer the band a recording
contract with Roadrunner. Declining offers from several smaller
labels, the band accepted the Roadrunner deal as they thought the
company had the resources to promote and distribute Killswitch
Engage releases.
Killswitch Engage began writing new material for their second album
in November 2001.
With a larger recording budget, the band
entered Zing Studios in Westfield, Massachusetts in November, and was able to spend more time
"getting things right". Mixed in January at Backstage
Studios by producer
Andy Sneap, the album
was titled
Alive or Just
Breathing for lyrics in the song "Just Barely Breathing".
A music video for the single "My Last Serenade" increased the
band's exposure, and the album peaked at number 37 on the
Top Heatseekers chart. After the album's
release, which was written and recorded for two guitarists, the
band decided to expand and become a fivesome when they recruited
Pete Courtese, Dutkiewicz moved to guitar to replace him later on,
and former Aftershock drummer
Tom Gomes
filled in the vacant drummer position. Kevin Boyce of
CMJ New
Music Report described the record as "more addictive than
crack cocaine that's been smothered in caffeine and nicotine and
drenched with chocolate", and Jason D. Taylor of Allmusic said the
release is "a pure metal album that seemingly has ignored any
fashionable trend and instead relies solely on skill and expertise
to sculpt some of meatiest heavy metal since the glory days of
Metallica and
Slayer".
New lead singer and drummer (2002–2004)
After Leach got married on April 20, 2002 and began touring again
he started to become depressed. This started to affect his
screaming as he would put too much emotion into the screaming and
not enough technique. At his worst Leach would do a show then head
back to the bus and go to sleep. Leach left the band a few days
before the band was meant to play a show and sent the band members
an e-mail telling them he had quit. D'Antonio thought that "after
three years of hanging out with the dude, and considering him a
brother, to just get an email was a little bit harsh."
The band immediately started to search for a replacement vocalist
and found
Howard
Jones of
Blood Has Been
Shed. Jones disliked the band's sound when he first heard it.
He commented "I was like, ‘Meh.’ I come from hardcore and dirtier
metal, and Killswitch sounded so clean. But the more I listened to
it, I realized there’s some really good songs here". After hearing
about Leach's vocal problems, Jones contacted the band and was
accepted as the replacement. Without listening to the entire
self-titled album or
Alive or Just Breathing, Jones had to
memorize seven songs for his debut at the 2002 Hellfest.
The new lineup played on the Road Rage tour in the United Kingdom
and the Netherlands in 2002 with
36
Crazyfists and
Five Pointe O.
Touring continued through the New Year's Day, and in 2003 the first
song to feature Jones, "When Darkness Falls", appeared on the
soundtrack of the 2003 horror film
Freddy vs. Jason. Following the 2003
Ozzfest, drummer Gomes left the band because
he wished to spend more time with his wife, to pursue his band
Something of a Silhouette, and because he was tired of touring. He
was replaced by
Justin Foley of Blood
Has Been Shed and Red Tide, and Foley's first tour with the band
was the
MTV2 Headbangers Ball in 2003.
The End of Heartache (2004–2006)
The End of Heartache
was released on May 11, 2004, and peaked at number 21 on the
Billboard 200 with 38,000 sales in its first week, and it also
peaked at number 39 on the Australian album chart following an
Australian tour with
Anthrax. The
album went on to sell more than 500,000 copies in the U.S and was
certified gold on December 7, 2007. The album received mostly
positive reviews, with Jon Caramanica of
Rolling Stone calling the album a
"stunning collection, retaining much of their signature musical
brutality". Ed Rivaria of
Allmusic
commented "
riff upon riff are piled
sky-high into each number that follows, it's the unpredictable
rhythmic shifts used to build and then relieve internal pressure
that fuel the Killswitch Engage power source".
In late 2004, the band supported
Slayer on
its U.S. Jagermusic dates, and headlined shows with
From Autumn to Ashes,
Eighteen Visions, and 36 Crazyfists. "The
End of Heartache" became the main single for the movie
Resident Evil: Apocalypse,
and in 2005 the song was nominated in the
Best Metal
Performance category for the 47th annual
Grammy Awards. The award was given to
Motörhead for "
Whiplash". In late 2004,
The End of
Heartache was re-released as a special edition album, with a
second disc featuring various live performances, a Japanese bonus
track, and a re-recorded version of "Irreversal". During the summer
of 2005, the band returned for Ozzfest, and on November 1, 2005,
Alive or Just Breathing was re-released as part of
Roadrunner Records' 25th anniversary.
On November 22, 2005,
the live DVD World
Ablaze was released, which contained a live concert at the
Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts
, an hour-long documentary, and all the band's music
videos. The DVD went gold in the U.S. on April 8, 2006 for
500,000 sales.
As Daylight Dies (2006–2008)
Killswitch Engage played the
Reading and Leeds Festivals in
August 2006, having already played Australian dates without
Dutkiewicz, who was suffering from back problems and needed
corrective surgery. On May 23, 2006, the song "This Fire Burns" was
released on the
WWE Wreckless
Intent album. The track was intended to be the new theme
song for
WWE superstar
Randy Orton; however, it was scrapped
and later became the theme song for the
WWE Judgment Day 2006 pay-per-view. "This Fire Burns" is currently
used as the entrance theme for
WWE
SmackDown superstar,
CM Punk and was
later re-released as "This Fire" on the
As Daylight Dies Special
Edition.
Recorded in three months,
As
Daylight Dies was released on November 21, 2006 and peaked
at number 32 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart with 60,000
sales in its first week. "As Daylight Dies" proved to be one of
their biggest albums yet. It also entered the Australia album chart
at number 29.
Mixed by
Dutkiewicz, the album received mostly positive reviews—Thom Jurek
of
Allmusic called it "a Top Five metal
candidate for 2006 for sure".
Decibel Magazine contributor Nick
Terry said "To call
As Daylight Dies addictive would be an
understatement. That it outdoes its already impressive enough
predecessor could almost go without saying". Cosmo Lee of
Stylus Magazine commented
"the album is astonishingly badly sequenced", even though it
contributed to the album being "less emotionally heavy-handed, and
a lot more fun". As of November 27, 2007,
As Daylight Dies
has sold more than 300,000 units in the United States.
The album's first single, "
My
Curse", peaked at number 21 on the Hot Mainstream Rock chart,
and is featured in the video games
Guitar Hero III: Legends of
Rock and
Burnout
Paradise and is available as downloadable content for
Rock Band. "
The Arms of Sorrow" peaked at
number 31 on the same chart. The band's cover of
Dio's "
Holy
Diver", originally recorded for a
Kerrang! compilation album titled
High
Voltage, peaked at number 12 on the Mainstream Rock charts.
Early in 2007, the band had to cancel three of its European tour
dates with
The Haunted due to
Dutkiewicz's back problems. He required emergency back surgery and
was replaced on the tour by
Soilwork
guitarist
Peter Wichers.
Killswitch Engage headlined the No Fear Tour in early 2007 with
DragonForce,
Chimaira, and
He Is
Legend. Due to Dutkiewicz's back problems, he was replaced by
Damageplan and The Mercy Clinic frontman
Patrick Lachman, who was formerly
the guitarist for Diesel Machine and
Halford. Dutkiewicz recovered and was able to
finish No Fear tour, and the band began filming its video for
As Daylight Dies's second single, "
The Arms of Sorrow".
Killswitch Engage played the 2007
Download Festival with
Iron Maiden,
Evanescence,
Lamb
of God,
Linkin Park,
Slayer, and
Marilyn
Manson. The band also toured at Bamboozle 2007 and
Warped Tour. On August 6, 2007, Dutkiewicz was
forced to leave Warped Tour so he could fully recover from his back
surgery and continue daily physical therapy. He was replaced by
Killswitch's
guitar technician
Josh Mihlek for select songs, until his return on August 14,
2007.Killswitch Engage spent November 28 through December 17, 2007
on a U.S. tour with co-headlining band
Lamb of God, and supporting acts
DevilDriver and
Soilwork.
Killswitch Engage took part in the
Soundwave Festival in Australia during
February and March 2008, headlining the Metal Stage and playing
with bands such as
As I Lay Dying,
Shadows Fall and
Bleeding Through. The band toured until May
2008 ending their Canadian tour for As Daylight Dies in Vancouver,
BC on May 29.
Killswitch Engage also played at the 2008
Wacken Open
Air Festival in Germany, which is the biggest heavy metal festival in the world.
They played with bands such as
Iron
Maiden,
Children Of Bodom,
Carcass,
At The
Gates,
Exodus,
Kreator,
Opeth,
Unearth and
As I Lay
Dying.
Self-titled fifth album (2008 onward)
The band toured with
Disturbed as part of
the
Music as a Weapon tour,
and will play in the Rockstar "
Mayhem
Festival" with
Slayer,
Marilyn Manson, and
Bullet for My Valentine. The band
also played the 2009
Download
Festival with bands such as
Faith No
More,
Limp Bizkit,
Slipknot,
Def
Leppard and
Korn.The band entered the
studio in October 2008 to start recording their next album with
Dutkiewicz and
Brendan
O'Brien co-producing it (a first for the band), In
mid-February, bassist Mike D'Antonio confirmed in an interview with
Metal Hammer that "drums were finished", and that he had “finished
up the last few bass fixes". He also stated that Howard [Jones] is
in Atlanta finishing vocals, and that "it shouldn’t be too much
longer now.” On April 14, the band announced the name of their
album as '
Killswitch
Engage', the second time the band has self-titled the name of
their album. It was released on June 30 .
On June 6, Killswitch Engage revealed their new video, "
Starting Over", on
MTV's Headbangers Ball.
On June 9, the single "Starting Over" became available on
iTunes and also made the album available for
pre-order.
On June 22, the new album became available to stream over MySpace
Music.
Upon release,
Killswitch Engage
debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200, marking the band's highest
chart position.
The band has been set to be included in the
Taste of Chaos tour held in Europe.
Band members
- Current members
- Former members
Discography
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
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