ALBUM REVIEW: Killswitch Engage – ‘This Consequence’

So, can we agree that this second age of Jesse Leach-fronted Killswitch Engage hasn’t been all it was cracked up to be? Disarm The Descent suggested the total opposite, a return to directly heavy, ferocious metalcore away from some of the emo cues of the Howard Jones years. That was 12 years ago, and they’ve stuck to that mindset so unerringly that it’s been difficult to step up and care. When was the last time you felt the impulse to spin Incarnate or Atonement over any other option? Actually, forget that—when was the last time you remembered those albums even exist?

If we’re standing by Disarm The Descent as a noteworthy part of the Killswitch canon (which it is), then This Consequence is their third strictly no-frills album in a row, bound to this apparently inescapable rut. What’s worse, they seem to be tiring themselves out just trying to keep up. Atonement might’ve been perfunctory at its best, but This Consequence struggles with even getting to that. In fact, it’s everything you’d hope such a pivotal act in modern metal wouldn’t be—small, weak, unimportant, and easy to slot into a cabinet of filler material that’s gotten disappointingly full.

It’s more than a little obvious to deduce, too, when the sound is nowhere near up to scratch. How a band on their ninth album, known for the colossal power of their work, can settle for sounding this uninteresting is a mystery, but it’s the chronic pain that This Consequence is battling against. ‘Battling’ is a particularly apt word for Justin Foley’s drumming, which is seldom given a moment to shine that isn’t thrown completely out of whack with everything else. One minute, it’s padded and muffled on Discordant Nation when it’s supposed to be approaching blastbeat territory; the next, Forever Aligned cranks up the inelegant thundering by shoving every instrumental source aside except the drums. And on both, they’re not even consistent with other decisions made on the same tracks, with the same instrument.

You’ll find weird lacks of harmony like that all across This Consequence, though it all falls under the blanket of a mix that does no favours whatsoever. It’s incredibly shallow, often with no noteworthy power to speak of. For that, it’s often down to Leach to feign that these songs are bigger than they are, as he pushes himself into a bellowing register that he’s putting his back into to ensure gaps are closed. Occasionally it can work, like on I Believe where the majority-clean vocal performance gives it a hard rock feel that’s somewhat different, if nothing else. More often, though, they’re the small cracks of remembrance for what Killswitch Engage can be, stuck on an album that seems to want to stymie all of it. This Consequence is a severely depowered listen, almost always attributed to guitars with no significant tone, and compositions that are flavourless down to their roots.

The aforementioned inconsistencies ironically help it there; at least with them, there’s something to talk about. Otherwise, this would be the most utilitarian variant of a Killswitch Engage release imaginable, right from the first track Abandon Us and its severe distaste for anything even in the general vicinity of excess. There’s a dissonance the size of a solar system between how This Consequence sounds and what exactly it brings to bear. So much has been made about its process—how this was the first time since Alive Or Just Breathing in 2002 that the band recorded in the same room together—and yet, the results seem worse than ever. Broken Glass is the standout in that sense, described in the accompanying press junket as “one of [their] unabashedly and uncompromisingly heavy compositions”, and boy, does the lack of a superlative not feel like a mistake! The quote is already embellished, to be fair; this mid-toned, mid-tempo deep cut is hardly uncompromising or heavy, and its awkwardly blunt finish makes the taste left even sourer.

So, is there anything actually good on This Consequence? Well, yeah, in bits. The best song is probably Where It Dies for regaining some of the meat and fire of typical Killswitch standard, seemingly getting closer and closer to usual equilibrium with each passing measure. Aftermath also has a nice, solemn guitar reverberation to open up; it could go deeper but at least it’s a showcase of better abilities. Beyond that…well, you’re left to dig for scraps, honestly. The kindest comments mostly find themselves directed towards things that are passable rather than good. The lyricism is broad emotiveness and political soapboxing, never objectionable and clearly from the right perspective but without a lot of probing insight. Similarly, Leach’s performance is above-board for his skill level (save for the hemmed-in growls on Collusion), though you’d struggle to call any of it top-tier Killswitch.

And let’s not mince words—more than a decade after their last album that could be called good with no qualifications, this just isn’t enough. On albums like This Consequence, Killswitch Engage feel like a facsimile of themselves, not a band who’d help define what metal and metalcore would be for a new millennium. There are bands coming out today where the influence is stark, and yet the genuine article are spinning their wheels to such a nonchalant degree that it’s a wonder there’s any rotation at all. When it’s not drab and uninspired, it’s obstructed by its own baffling creative decisions, with rare flashes of what could’ve been peppered in at unsatisfyingly paltry intervals. Without the past legend status that they’re hanging onto by an atom-thick thread, albums like this would make the idea of dropping Killswitch Engage completely so, so tempting.

For fans of: Bullet For My Valentine, All That Remains, Shadows Fall

‘This Consequence’ by Killswitch Engage is released on 21st February on Metal Blade Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall