So Killswitch Engage is releasing a new album (old news), it leaked onto the internet (old news since Saturday), and it is currently streaming on their Myspace (old news)....has anyone heard it?

I like it, but it has an even more mainstream sound than their other albums. It's got some good songs, but other songs would fit right into the soundtrack of a shitty movie like Underworld or Twilight (Starting Over especially, it reminds me of The End of Heartache (the song), which is one of my least favorite KsE songs).

I was reading a RollingStones review posted in the description of the torrent file for Killswitch Engage II, there was a tidbit describing Killswitch Engage as a good gateway band to heavier stuff because they combine mainstream/alternative modern rock and pop sensibilities (especially on their new album) with heavier stuff. Melodic death metal and metalcore in the past, recently metalcore and melodic hardcore.

[quote="Howard Jones on rollingstone.com]"With the amount of melody that's in Killswitch, it just
makes sense to try to enunciate and be clear, and a lot of
people pick up on that, people who don't normally listen to
heavier music," he says. "In a lot of ways, we can be a
cool gateway band into heavier stuff. You'll start
listening to us, and a few months later, you could be
listening to Nile or Decapitated."[/quote]

Reminds me how I got into metal, the first heavy bands I listened to were very melodic and accessible compared to what I listen to now. My continued enjoyment of Killswitch Engage is a vestigial remnant of those times now long past. Back then I listened to bands such as Atreyu, Disturbed, even Limp Bizkit... alongside 90s alternative rock (which was what I listened to before metal). I credit Six21 as the most key of the gateway bands into heavy music, since they were a band composed of highschool friends and they played alternative/hardcore/nu-metal. The shows they put on were full of a kind of energy that I did not experience anywhere else.

I do remember that Killswitch Engage were one of the first purely metal bands I listened to (This was during their Alive or Just Breathing era), and it was within weeks of discovering them that I started listening to In Flames, within a week of discovering In Flames that I discovered Six Feet Under (and a few minutes later... Cannibal Corpse). Nile was one of the first death metal bands from back then, but Decapitated wasn't until 2007 since I saw them at Summer Slaughter tour in Allentown with Necrophagist (except, Necrophagist was a no show due to American't customs)

Other gateway bands probably include Moonspell, Type O Negative, Dimmu Borgir, Kamelot, Rhapsody (These two were a gateway into power metal), Therion, Dream Theater (My uncle gave me Scenes from a Memory for Christmas two years before I discovered these 'gateway' bands, but I didn't latch onto that album until a few years after).


I find it strange how classic bands are exempt from these. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest made their way into my music collection from the very beginning (The Napster years of 1999/2000), yet it wasn't through them that I got into heavier stuff. I didn't get into Black Sabbath until around 2007 because all I could find were Ozzy stuff and I found his voice to be annoying (I didn't grasp the concept of "RIFFS" back then). I actually didn't care for the song Angel of Death by Slayer when I first heard it, and didn't get into them until later when I "discovered" that a lot of their music made their way into the computer game Doom (which I played since 1994, haha).

Swallow the Sun is my gateway into funeral doom. It was soon after I discovered them that I looked up "doom metal" on Wikipedia and was curious about "funeral doom", after that it was Remembrance, Esoteric, Skepticism, Ahab and Funeral.

So yeah, this is like two threads in one. Did anyone hear the new Killswitch Engage? Love it or hate it? What are your gateway bands - was Killswitch Engage one of them if you're a younger metalhead? What about the older folks here? What were your gateway bands? I'm curious if they deviate from the standard "Sabbath -> Iron Maiden -> Judas Priest -> Slayer -> etc" progression... anyone with Flower Travelin' Band as a gateway band? How about Thin Lizzy? Overkill?

I must be getting old. 'Gateway band' for me meant something like Morbid Angel or Carcass, after I started listening to metal with Testament, Slayer and Kreator.
I can't stomach any of this new pseudo-core shit. It makes me feel like I'm drinking tea with WAAAAY too much sugar in it.

Good way to put it, that's the main problem with the new Killswitch Engage... it's too sweet compared to their older albums.

yeah, you don't seem to realize he's also talking about all of Killswitch Engage in their entirety.

I liked KSE's The End of Heartache in 2006 or so, but everything I've heard after that has been boring crap, and I haven't listened to that album itself in years.

Perhaps in his point of view.

What I said was in my point of view. I guess I have a higher tolerance for pop sensibilities (When they're done well, you get Sister Hazel) than others.

1. I have not heard it, and don't really plan on listening to it, Killswitch Engage and metalcore in general never really interested me.
2. Mine was sort of atypical for current times: I went from AC/DC to Guns N' Roses to Priest and Maiden to Metallica's more rock-ish albums to Jugulator to thrash (mostly old Metallica and Megadeth). After this point, my tastes subsequently expanded to what they are now, which is basically being a fan of just about every genre of metal. I say that my progression is odd because I went from glam metal onwards, whereas I assume (correct me if I am wrong) that most people that "progressed from a gateway band/genre" these days did so with nu metal/metalcore.

As Daylight Dies was the first thing I heard by them, back when it first came out. I liked it then, it being the first "heavy" thing I had really listened to...now I despise that album. But, after listening to it, I started listening to thrash metal and then some Norther, so things got better quickly.

I never really listened to Killswitch much. I remember liking the song "My Curse" when it came out. I thought the main riff was badass.

Pantera and Lamb of God were gateways for me. I thought they were so great until I found better bands to listen to. Now those two don't do anything for me, and I have no desire to listen to them. They're pretty dull.

What I don't understand is why people don't look into metal more deeply if they like these crappy bands. I mean, some people will stick with these bands, claiming they're the best metal has to offer without giving anymore thought to the genre they claim to love so dearly.

Even Metallica could figure out when they put out stinkers of albums.

Word. These guys need to get some balls if they want to make something decent.

Edit: They don't even acknowledge their first album, which was clearly the best one.

They prolly don't because like half the songs were rerecorded for later releases.

Or because Mustaine wrote a good majority of it. However, this is starting to get off the topic of the thread, and it would probably be best to start a new thread if you want to discuss it further.

Hey, same. I still love that album. KsE got me onto harsh vocals, which I'd never really been able to take before hand.

My progression would be something like:
Metallica - Pantera - KsE - Decapitated ---> metal as a whole. didn't listen to any rock or nu metal before hearing Metallica.

Funnily enough, i've been listening to metal for about 10 years now yet have only really gotten into the older stuff (i.e Pre-thrash) in the last 2 or so years. I hadn't heard a single maiden song until about 6 months ago.

No, I meant KsE. I've never heard that Metallica don't acknowledge Kill 'Em All.

Yeah, I think KsE's pretty awesome. Haven't heard their new album yet, but they're what got me into metalcore.

So, gateaway bands that got me into metal?

I started listening to nu-stuff (Linkin Park mostly), then after that I began listening to symphonic/power metal stuff (Rhapsody of Fire, Nightwish, Haggard), and now I basically like all metal.

Yeah dude, i've heard the whole new killswitch engage album 4 times. it definitely isn't as heavy as what they've done in the past like "The End of Heartache" or "Alive or Just Breathing" but it's still really good. It's got more melody in it than any other album. I do agree with you that killswitch is a gateway band into heavier stuff because if you think about it they are like a semi-semi-semi death metal band. (Only because of their vocals) My gateway bands that got me into heavier stuff were Killswitch, SLayer, and Iron Maiden.

Killswitch is not death metal at all. Their vocals are metalcore.

Unfortunately, I have the same case. I used to listen to a whole slate of mallcore like Korn, Slipknot and Mudvayne.

Lol. Most of the metalhead people I know began in the same way...growing up watching MTV can really affect you.


Just listened to KsE's new single...not as good as I thought it'd be. Nothing close to "My Curse" or "Rose of Sharyn".

Killswitch's whole new album is a let down. Seems as if they kinda half assed this effort.

What's with this revisionist BS, calling this their self-titled album when they already have one? Do they think their fans' memories are that short? Have the band actually forgotten their own first album? Or are they just so creatively bankrupt they can't even afford to think of a new title?

I've been wondering this same thing, too. I'm not even a follower of the band, but when I heard they had a self-titled coming out, I thought, don't they already have one? I looked it up, and have been perplexed ever since.... Maybe they REALLY like the name???

I do agree that Killswitch was one of the founding bands of metalcore. The End of Heartache is the best metalcore album there is, but their recent stuff is meh.

Killswitch was the main gateway band for me, into growled/screamed vocals. Most of what I listened to up to that point was mainstream rock, and then I heard something by Killswitch on the radio (The End of Heartache?). It had some heavier instrumentals and some powerful clean vocals, both of which I was familiar with and quite liked, but there were also some screams in there. At first I didn't much like that part, but liked the song enough that I figured I'd go out and download it. And I did, it was an edit that omitted the screams. And much to my surprise, it struck me that something was really missing, and I went back out and got the proper version. And it all went from there.

Seconded.

As for myself, my gateway bands into what I listen to today involved me going from AC/DC -> Motley Crue -> Maiden -> Priest -> Slayer -> Cannibal Corpse & Napalm Death -> Celtic Frost & Burzum -> Moonblood. And yes, I still enjoy at least something from all of these bands.

Seems like a touch! A touch too much!

They've been half-assing it since The End Of Heartache. Where the fuck have you been?

I like several metalcore bands much more than Killswitch, but they do have some killer songs. Singer drives me up a fucking wall, though. Can't stomach the harsh vocals, and the clean ones are so god damn predictable in their approach, it's sickening. I don't like knowing exactly what's going to happen next in every song.

yeah same here.

Killswitch is gross, and I lol'd at the gateway thing.

Yeah, a core band is a total gateway.

A gateway to absolute damnation, maybe.

What can I say, I don't listen to them.

The End of Heartache was one of the first "heavy" albums I ever heard. Considering the music I currently listen to (and that many others have had the same thing happen),I think calling Killswitch Engage a gateway to good music is more than fair.

I agree. Saying that KSE can't be a good gateway is ignorant.

If you're fucking 15, maybe. It's just not a good place to start, really.

When I first started out into harsh vocals territory, I couldn't tell a different between death growls, hardcore shouts or pig squeals, or black metal screaches.

Exactly. Shit only serves as a gateway to more shit.

This is an absolute cop-out. It reeks of a band that know they are pop-peddling shit merchants trying to gain some respect back from metal fans, by claiming that they are doing some sort of service by creating true death metal fans.

When Alive... came out it was a stand-alone decent album (even the reviews on M-A back that up surprisingly), they didn't need an excuse to sound so fucking piss-weak back then, they were a gateway to themselves.

Its not a gateway, its a poor excuse for really tired song-writing. If anything this path could only lead to the even more tired song-writing of the mainstream rock charts. But that's why people read Rolling Stone I suppose (say how is that new U2 album?).

Obviously I'm not having a go at you or the idea of gateways to hard metal. Swallow The Sun is an excellent example fo something that acts as a gateway to a genre, but also has artistic integrity.

ya that's what i was going to say. it is pretty pathetic when a band admits to being a "gateway" band. they're basically saying they want no part in being original or taken seriously by real metalheads.

Thirding that; that is fucking pathetic. It's a shame because they could easily be something better if they tried. The potential is there.

Seriously, how starved for attention do you have to be to admit that you are just a backbone for "heavier" bands so that people can get into THEM instead of YOU? Good God, it should be common sense. What's wrong with them?