Killswitch Engage – “Live at the Palladium” (Metal Blade Records)

Killswitch Engage
Live at the Palladium
Metal Blade Records

Consisting of some of the best music Killswitch Engage has ever laid to wax, including arguably their two best records, 2019’s Atonement and 2000’s self-titled, performed in full, Live at the Palladium is a clinic in all-things Killswitch Engage. As you might probably well expect, the band holds nothing back on this special live streaming event, breathing fire and spewing venom time and time again, up and down this well-curated set list.

To be honest, this is a simple review. Live at the Palladium is really fucking good. That’s it.

Opting for Atonement first, KSE comes out with all guns ablaze with a feverish rendition of “Unleashed,” a perfect table setter that leads into “The Signal Fire,” one of the bands best, and heaviest, tracks to date, thanks to opening bars, ‘welcome to the madness that dwells inside these eyes.’ The band’s brilliance and sheer aptitude to dominate their live surroundings can felt throughout the Atonement portion of Live at the Palladium (“I Am Broken Too,” “Know Your Enemy,” “I Can’t Be The Only One”), while concludes perfectly with “Bite the Hands That Feeds,” one of the album’s hardest hitters, setting up for all of the tasty riffs yet to come.

“Temple from the Within,” one of the most overlooked tracks in KSE’s canon, gets us started on the eponymous portion of Live at the Palladium, and I already have goosebumps. As the mighty “Vide Infra” hits, I’m transported back to my formative years in college, listening to this album while walking through campus on my portable CD player. Yes, kids, that is a real scenario. Frontman Jesse Leach is a force of nature on “Irreversal,” another true thumper, as are these vitriolic executions of “Soilborn,” “Numb Sickened Eyes” and “In the Unblind.”

And, as a surprise twist to end Live at the Palladium, KSE forgoes the self-titled closing “One Last Sunset” for the classic “Just Barely Breathing,” and aside from maybe “My Last Serenade,” I don’t see how a record of this magnitude could end. The band does indeed save some of their best for last here, unleashing pure hell in the album’s final 6 minutes.

While it surely didn’t need to, Live at the Palladium further proves that Killswitch Engage is the best band in heavy music today.

Go Download: “Temple from the Within”

GEM’s Top Albums of 2020

In no particular order, here are our best albums from the 365 days that made up 2020.

1. Avatar – Hunter Gatherer
2. Stabbing Westward – Dead & Gone
3. Ether Coven – Everything is Temporary Except Suffering
4. Pressure Cracks – This Is Called Survival
5. Five Finger Death Punch – F8
6. Bury Tomorrow – Cannibal
7. Killswitch Engage – Atonement II: B-Sides for Charity
8. Bush – The Kingdom
9. Tallah – Matriphagy
10. Hell or Highwater – Lost at Sonic Ranch

Honorable Mentions:

• Wilmette – Wilmette
• Less Than Jake – Silver Linings
• Dohny Jep – L.U.S.T.
• The Beautiful Mistake – “You’re Not Broken…I Am”

Killswitch Engage – “Atonement II B – Sides for Charity” (Metal Blade)

Killswitch Engage
Atonement II B – Sides for Charity
(Metal Blade)

Atonement II B – Sides for Charity, a six-song set of b-sides culled from the cutting room floor of the recording session of Killswitch Engage’s 2019 release Atonement, is further proof of just how brilliant that album is. The sheer fact that these are the songs that didn’t make the cut just goes to show the strength of Atonement, the best of their career in my humble opinion.

But beyond the excellence of these half dozen tracks, easily the best part of Atonement II B – Sides for Charity is that 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the COVID-19 Relief Fund for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

“To the Great Beyond” opens Atonement II B – Sides for Charity with the same intensity, urgency and power you heard on Atonement; galloping leads, guttural barks and deft melody from frontman Jesse Leach. It’s hard to believe that “Hollow Convictions,” a thick slab of KSE’s power-meets-thrash recipe, didn’t make the cut, but then again, that’s how good Atonement was and is. “Killing of Leviathan” ups both the pace and amplitude with more blazing riffs and pummeling double bass work, “No Devotion” is another stunning slice of Killswitch Engage heavy metal bliss, which again has me asking the question, how in the hell does a track this good get cut? I continue to ask that very same question as “I Feel Alive Again” hits my speakers, thinking to myself, ‘this is a perfect Killswitch Engage song.’ Leach showcases his impressive range on oft-soaring closer “Prophets of Treason,” adroitly weaving between harsh refrains and high harmony, as only he can do.

Last year, Killswitch Engage released the best album of their 20 year career with Atonement. Atonement II B – Sides for Charity only serves to reinforce how seminal of a record that was, but above all else, the true power of this album of b-sides is showcased in its ability to give back to those in need. Music for a good cause is pretty fucking cool, isn’t it?

Go Download: “Hollow Convictions” ​

GEM’s Top Albums of 2019

In no particular order, here are our best albums from the 365 days that made up 2019.

1. Killswitch Engage – Atonement
2. Northlane – Alien
3. Pelican – Nighttime Stories
4. Various Artists – Punk Goes Acoustic Volume 3
5. The Ocean Cure – Re:Discover
6. Cold – The Things We Can’t Stop
7. As I Lay Dying – Shaped By Fire
8. Savage After Midnight – 11:59
9. The Darkness – Easter is Cancelled
10. Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind

Killswitch Engage – “Atonement” (Metal Blade)

The argument could be made that metalcore kings Killswitch Engage have yet to release a bad album (depending on who you are of course, although 2009’s self-titled album was slightly suspect). And if you are of that mind, then Massachusetts metallers give no reason for pause of their eighth studio album Atonement, a true monster of a record from start to finish with endless shreds, vicious barks and some of the best heavy grooves in the game.

Worlds collide on the ferocious “The Signal Fire” as former Killswitch (now current Light the Torch) frontman Howard Jones and current throat Jesse Leach squad up to breathe fire, showcasing what each do better than most – deftly transitioning from blistering back-and-forth barbs to nailing one high harmony after another. The tag team action doesn’t stop there thankfully, as KsE then welcome vaunted Testament mainman Chuck Billy on the equally powerful “The Crownless King,” who pushes Leach to the top of his game with his trademark gravel-throated growls, a track guitarist Adam D calls ‘fucking awesome.’ And he ain’t lying.

KsE extend a willing hand into the darkness on the standout “I Am Broken Too” with hopeful lines like ‘I see myself in you / I know you can make it through / If you needed proof, I’ll reopen my wounds / In all the right places for you / So now you see the truth that you are broken too / I’ll reopen my wounds for you.’ This track is a reminder that you are never alone and that if you need help, just ask for it. Prepare for goosebumps.

Atonement’s entire ethos is summed up on the beastly “Know Your Enemy,” as Leach defiantly proclaims ‘bow down to no one, resist the system and fight back.’ “Take Control” is a throwback to the power metal-leaning cuts of The End Of Heartache with big riffs, bigger hooks and slow burning crescendos, “Ravenous” lives up to its name, going all “Rose of Sharyn” types of heavy on Atonement, with a soaring hook to boot, a sonic blueprint that bleeds onto the closing “Bite The Hands That Feeds,” which finds Leach venomously spewing the lines, ‘we won’t go quietly…what would you kill for…what would you die for,’ as Atonement fades to black.

I’ve been waiting for the better part of 2019 for an album to blow me away – thank you Killswitch Engage for writing it.

Go Download: “The Crownless King”