ZINE UNDERGROUND: Killswitch Engage @ Manchester Academy, Manchester

Metalcore is arguably enjoying its most fruitful period in its three decade history. For a start, there’s a crop of bands enjoying stratospheric heights in ARCHITECTS, BRING ME THE HORIZON and BAD OMENS while a healthy population keep the scene alive and kicking. Additionally, the century’s golden generation are enjoying anniversary years, with the likes of TRIVIUM and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE celebrating Ascendancy and The Poison on their recent tour at the start of the year. For over 25 years, Massachusetts heavyweights KILLSWITCH ENGAGE have retained their place at the table, as this year’s This Consequence attests to. Judging from the absolutely packed Manchester Academy that awaits them, it’s clear just how much this band are loved.

Decapitated live @ Manchester Academy, Manchester. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography
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DECAPITATED might be openers on this European run, but the Polish technical death metallers are a respected name in heavier music circles. As such, there’s a healthy throng of people awaiting them on this larger stage, and a healthy percentage of those who might not have delved this deep into heavy music. And the band don’t disappoint. Hitting hard with a quick fire one-two of Cancer Culture and Just a Cigarette, the band dispatch killer grooves, thunderous drums and a confident display from new frontman Eemeli Bodde. It’s a Cancer Culture-heavy set, which makes logical sense, but the more-recent Earth Scar and the iconic Spheres of Madness showcase DECAPITATED, and particularly band founder and guitarist Wacław ‘Vogg’ Kiełtyka, at their best. A confident opening.

Rating: 8/10

Fit For An Autopsy live @ Manchester Academy, Manchester. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography
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They might be the youngest band on the bill by give or take nine years, New Jersey’s FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY bring a more straight-forward bludgeoning than DECAPITATED. There’s still flashes of technicality, dispatched expertly to pin-point precision. And in frontman Joe Badolato, the band possess a frontman whose vocal range cuts through their hench deathcore with tremendous weight; particularly in The Sea Of Tragic Beasts. New standalone single It Comes For You sounds immense in the live environment, Hostage‘s emphatic chorus feels made for stages of this calibre, and in set closer Far From Heaven, the band sound colossally heavy. It’s utterly immense, bringing the curtain down on a solid outing from one of deathcore’s newer heavy hitters.

Rating: 8/10

Hatebreed live @ Manchester Academy, Manchester. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

It’s been six long years since HATEBREED last rolled through Manchester, and scanning across the now-packed Manchester Academy, you could hazard a guess there’s as many people hear for Connecticut’s finest as tonight’s headliners. It’s helped by the surprise announcement that the band would play an in prompt show at the famous Star & Garter (which has just a capacity of 200!) the following week. Here though, the band are on thunderous form. Arriving on stage to ACCEPT‘s Balls to the Wall feels akin to a boxing entrance, and it’s fitting when the band deliver a three-punch knockout in I Will Be Heard, Make the Demons Obey and To The Threshold. Led by the ever-energetic Jamey Jasta, whose ear-to-ear grin and enthused stage presence keeps the crowd bouncing. He goads the older faces in the crowd to come out of mosh retirement and leaps to high wave the waves of crowdsurfers crashing over the barrier into the security team’s collective arms. It’s a set that passes by in the blink of an eye, with Destroy Everything doing exactly what it says on the tin, whilst Looking Down the Barrel of Today sees HATEBREED command and conquer. Let’s hope it’s not another six years before they roll through again.

Rating: 9/10

Killswitch Engage live @ Manchester Academy, Manchester. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography
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By the time KILLSWITCH ENGAGE arrive, the excitement is at fever-point, with a multi-generational crowd ready to welcome the band as returning heroes. Set openers, Strength of the Mind and Rose of Sharyn, two ends of the band’s storied history, are the perfect openers as the band ignite and set off the musical equivalent of a controlled demolition. The riffwork from Adam Dutkiewicz, who spends the set parading around the stage with glee and boyish charm, and Joel Stroetzel is on-point, and frontman Jesse Leach‘s assertive growls and crisp cleans entice deafening singalongs from the adoring crowd.

Whereas other bands from metalcore’s golden generation have spent the 2020s celebrating full anniversaries of their landmark records, KILLSWITCH celebrate their milestone band anniversary running a victory lap across most of their cherished discography. Long-term favourites in In Due Time, Beyond the Flames and This Is Absolution still retain their status as heavy hitters while Reckoning (taken from 2009’s largely forgotten second self-titled effort) is a surprise (but welcome) addition. Material taken from this year’s release, Aftermath, Broken Glass, Forever Aligned, and I Believe, all sound like they’ve been part of the band’s setlist for years, particularly I Believe, that really demonstrates the superb vocal harmonies between Leach and Dutkiewicz.

Killswitch Engage live @ Manchester Academy, Manchester. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography
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It’s a performance that rarely falters, while considering the band’s decades of experience, is to be expected. However, that does not detract from the sheer joy it is to experience KILLSWITCH ENGAGE performing at this level. And when you have a closing run of This Fire, My Curse, The End of Heartache and My Last Serenade, it’s as close to metalcore perfection as you can get. Humbled and clearly appreciative of a crowd that sold the venue out months in advance, KILLSWICH ENGAGE deliver a performance that serves as a love letter to those who have stuck with them every step of the way on their 25 year journey.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Serena Hill Photography here: