Ultimate Setlist: Killswitch Engage
Killswitch Engage creates chaos. It's a scientifically proven fact.1
As with most of my favorite bands, Killswitch Engage has been in heavy rotation for over 10 years. I don't recall exactly how I got into them (like with Thrice or ETID), but I know for a fact I had their first self-titled album a decent amount of time before Alive or Just Breathing came out; mostly because I DISTINCTLY remember highly anticipating their next release before I even had my license (I had to get a ride to the record store to buy it). Their debut album can be described in so many ways, but the one word that comes to mind over and over again is BRUTAL. Heavy, raw, anger-filled music, but with a positive message; this is my theory as to why they have risen as to one of the larger metal acts on the planet (well that, and Adam and Joel both went to Berklee, the Oxford of music production colleges). If you told me when I was 16 and only had their first album to listen to that they would one day be nominated for a Grammy (2005), I would have looked at you as though you were dead and not breathing.
Besides the countless times I've seen them, I have another working visual memory involving the band (abbreviated KsE for those unfamiliar). The setting: my first semester my freshman year of college, Fall 2002. Alive or Just Breathing had been out for only a few months, had gotten good reviews, and launched the band into the next level of popularity with the single/video My Last Serenade. A friend of mine and fellow music aficionado (was in several bands, solid drummer) was up at my school visiting his girlfriend at the time, another old friend, and told me to come to her dorm to hang and catch up. At some point in this conversation, he mentioned that Jesse Leach, the singer of KsE, had left the band. This news devastated me. They were one of my favorites, and the guy has an unreal combination of a heavy, bone-chilling scream and a clean, melodic singing voice. You just don't replace a guy like that; you can't.
Except Killswitch can. And did. My buddy saw how upset I was, and the next sentence out of his mouth was "They got someone else already. He's better." BULL. SHIT. You expect me to believe that a one of a kind talent left the band, and not only did they find someone his equal, but BETTER than the original? He assured me that yes... the guy from Blood Has Been Shed has a better voice than Jesse. Having to call his bluff, I went to the next show they had in the area (Krome) to see for myself. I went in totally blind and deaf; I had never seen or heard Howard Jones other than a few BHBS songs, none of which I believe had any sort of singing range. Guess what happened?
Did you guess that Howard took that show over one song at a time? That he came out, introduced himself politely, and song by song proceeded to tear the roof down and silence any skeptics (at least in the NJ area) that Killswitch Engage was not a lost cause? Because that's exactly what happened. Whether you think Howard or Jesse is better is irrelevant; what's important is that they're both outstanding. Howard has pipes on him and can belt out a tune like no other (see: The End of Heartache). Jesse pioneered the genre, and while his singing voice may not quite be up where Howard's is, it is close enough with the combination of his slightly more metal scream.
It's only fitting that when Howard had to leave the band last January for medical reasons, a month later the band announced that his replacement would be who he replaced in the first place; Jesse Leach was reuniting with Killswitch Engage. THIS is how you keep a fan base. And if it were up to me, this is how you put on the ultimate show for that fan base. This took me a LONG time, but once the day came for me to finally see them again (tonight, for the first time in YEARS), I made it my mission to suck it up and complete it.2 Equal parts Jesse and Howard songs, with very little coming from second self-titled album, KsE purists would leave this show battered, bruised, and smiling ear to ear.
ULTIMATE KILLSWITCH ENGAGE SETLIST
Numbered Days
The Hell In Me
This is Absolution
Life to Lifeless
Beyond the Flames
Unbroken
Vide Infra
New Awakening
To the Sons of Man
My Curse
Rose of Sharyn
Turning Point
The End of Heartache
In the Unblind
Self Revolution
Daylight Dies
Soilborn
My Last Serenade
ENCORE
A Bid Farewell
Fixation on the Darkness
Temple from the Within
Honorable Mentions: Irreversal, All We Have, Take This Oath
I can't tell you how much I laughed while reading this article. On top of the thought of scientists walking around a metal show, the I kept thinking in my head how funny it would be to hear Jesse say "I WANNA SEE EVERYONE RUN, SMASH, AND DANCE IN A CIRCULAR ROTATION RIGHT FUCKIN NOW!"
I was supposed to see them perform Alive or Just Breathing on December 28th at Starland Ballroom, but that show was canceled because of damage done by Sandy. This setlist was completely different then, because Disarm the Descent had not come out yet. They did not make it easy on me; I left a lot of songs I really like off this list. So it goes.
