Killswitch Engage

As Daylight Dies

Written by: AP on 14/12/2006 16:58:27

Killswitch Engage might as well proclaim themselves as the proprietors of metalcore and indeed the jesters of the genre. What most people don't realize but should realize is that the band's members are grown men and music school graduates. According to Maynard James Keenan, "once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer", a philosophy Killswitch likes to subscribe to. Though a band's failure to transition and progress usually equals its demise in this genre, Killswitch Engage has produced a steady flow of their own sound, which has, unsurprisingly, survived thanks to the band's intricate knowledge of which strings to pull.

As much as I'd like to dislike "As Daylight Dies", I'd be a fool to do so. Technically, the album promises nothing new and delivers accordingly. Too many bands in this genre resort to shredding and solo-masturbation in an attempt to differentiate themselves, or simply to attract attention to their expensive guitars and tattoo-ridden bodies. Killswitch Engage write simple, but effective metal riffs and couple them with emotional choruses that are intentionally too angsty to be coming from grown men. As Cosmo Lee of Stylus magazine put it, the emphasis now is less on choruses and more on riffs.

On the other hand, "As Daylight Dies" is like "The End of Heartache" revisited: fine-tuned but generally the same formula. In a way, this was the obvious path to follow, simply because the band is so damn good at what they do. They play metal as pop to scene kids and produce choruses that are catchy and emo as hell, and are thus prone to gather quite the fan base. This wasn't necessarily the wrong path to follow, either, because "The End of Heartache" is an excellent piece of music.

Could this album be better? Certainly. What inhibits album is that it has the potential to rock. Whenever an album does this, it inspires more frustration than awe, and this is the case with almost every song on "As Daylight Dies". If every song on the album sounded like "Reject Yourself" does minus its unnecessary chorus, we'd have one of the best metalcore albums of our time. Nonetheless, an album worth owning.

7

Download: Reject Yourself, Unbroken
For the fans of: All That Remains
Listen: Myspace

Release date 20.11.2006
Roadrunner

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