A classic case of hindsight being 20/20,
Killswitch Engage
's eponymous debut is now viewed as a significant touchstone in the emergence of the New Wave of American
Heavy Metal
, but it had only a limited impact upon the insular Northeastern
hardcore
scene when it was released through
Ferret Records
in 2000 (and that was mostly because its musicians had previously been involved with influential underground bands like
Overcast
and
Aftershock
). One listen is all that's required to understand why. Like many of their peers at the time, the musicians in
were boldly testing the spartan limitations of
songwriting -- coming out of their inherited
shell, if you will -- by introducing heretical elements from
heavy metal
, elements which most genre purists would consider anathema. These included all manner of deathly Cookie Monster grunts and shrieks, fusillades of fast-picked notes, and intricate minor-key melodies, plus all manner of technical instrumental showboating (histrionic solos, double kick-drum blastbeats, unorthodox time signatures, etc.), which lifted album standouts like
"Irreversal,"
"In the Unblind,"
and particularly
"Temple from the Within"
"Vide Infra"
beyond their more simplistic,
-loyal counterparts. In fact, it wasn't at all surprising when these last two songs were re-recorded for the band's breakthrough second album,
Alive or Just Breathing
, by which time
had symbolically swallowed the proverbial
bullet by signing with stalwart
metal
label
Roadrunner
. Compared to that sophomore effort, this eponymous first salvo can't help but sound formative, but it still contains plenty of exciting material for
KE
diehards, while embodying the curious conundrum of a transitory feel, despite there not being anything, technically speaking, for it to transition from! Told you it was a conundrum! ~ Eduardo Rivadavia