Album Review: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - This Consequence

On February 21st, the legendary Killswitch Engage released their 9th studio album "This Consequence", a ten-track listed record making up just over 35 minutes. The almost post-apocalyptic-looking cover feels like this could set the tone for the music about to come. (Words by Frank Iszard)

The opening track, 'Abandon Us'. Starts off with a heavy, attacking beat, Jesse's typical vocals matching it perfectly. Seamlessly turning to the contrasting clean vocals of 'Abandon us' and the mellower chorus give this the typical Killswitch style we all love. A Solid opening song to the new album.

Next up, 'Discordant Nation'. Continuing with the hard-hitting starts, this also packs a punch, yet this has a darker feel than the previous track, with definite hints to the 'Daylight Dies' era. With clean vocals over blast beats, and those epic halftime breaks that gave that album its iconic sound. This could be a future classic for the band.

'Aftermath' has a more melodic start, cutting to a quicker tempo with a cleaner sound. Halfway through Jesse's screams give out a desperate emotion that then finishes with a verse of "Whoa" echoes, making it sound like this could also be a throwback to the previously mentioned era.

Track 4 is 'Forever Aligned'. Drums attack from the first beat and the whole song feels intimidatingly heavy to start, giving way to some brilliant Guitar work, Drum fills and double bass action. If you are a fan of 'Times of Grace', this is probably the song you will connect with most.

Rounding out the first half of the album is 'I Believe'. A pure-blood Killswitch song in all aspects. All the tones and breaks that hook into you and uplift you in a way that only they can make happen. A much more melodic song with nearly all vocals being clean. Personal favourite track of the album.

The second half of the album starts with, 'Where It Dies'. A half-time drum intro to double bass, breaks being matched by the biting riff of the guitars and the bass really cutting through gives this almost a classic thrash sound. The feel of the song gets heavier after the BFMV-esque solo until the growled "Suffer My Vengeance" ends it all in a fade-out.

Track 6 is 'Collusion'. The rudimental snare-driven intro opens up a very frustrated-sounding verse. Lyrically the state of the world is the subject of this track and you can feel the angst of it all throughout. The second half features a drop and some of the deepest growls from a Killswitch song, giving way to a more melodic finish.

Carrying on with the growling vocals is the next track, 'The Fall Of Us'. With blast beats, double bass halftimes and screams throughout, you could almost mistake this offering for a Black metal song. The chorus is the only part that sets it aside and reminds you that you're listening to KSE and not some angry Scandis. Close your eyes and imagine Jesse and Adam D covered in corpse paint for this one!

'Broken Glass'. This is a fairly short, but solid song. It does give off some different vibes to those normally from a KSE song. I think if you mashed up Slipknot's 'All Hope Is Gone' album into 2 and a half minutes, I feel like this is what that result would be. (I am still unsure if that's a good or bad thing)

The last song in this varied latter half, and closing the album is 'Requiem'. The heavy intros are a running theme for this record, 'Requiem' feels like it has an early self-titled era Killswitch sound to start. But feels like it loses that as the song goes on, it feels like something is just missing out on making this a great song, that being said, this does feature a short and sweet Guitar solo, which is a rarity for Killswitch.

Overall, "This Consequence" isn't the best work from Killswitch Engage, but it does start off pretty strong with some truly great songs like 'Abandon Us' and 'I Believe'. Combined with the different styles to the normal expectations toward the end of the record, it may be one of those 'The more you listen, the more it grows on you' albums.