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Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing

 

	RELEASED: May 21st, 2002 PRODUCER:Adam Dutkiewitz LABEL:Roadrunner Records BAND:Jesse Leach Joel Stroezel Adam Dutkiewitz Mike D’Antonio Tom Gomes
+ Seamless melding of hardcore & heavy metal, great melodies, heartfelt lyrics - Production is a bit dry, drums are fairly simple	TRACKS: 1.Numbered Days 2.Self Revolution 3.Fixation on the Darkness 3.My Last Serenade 4.Life to Lifeless 5.Just Barely Breathing 6.To the Sons of Man 7.Temple From the Within 8.The Element of One 9.Vida Infra 10.Without a Name 11.Rise Inside

OVERVIEW

Gentlemen of the metalcore genre, here is your par for the course.  This is the archetype, the standard, the yardstick by which all modern metalcore will be judged.  Here’s your bogey.  Good luck even coming close.

            Ok, so I know that there was metalcore before KSE, and you can babble on and on about Poison the Well this, Overcast that, and Hamartia the other thing, but the bottom line is that on this album Killswitch threw down the gauntlet and darn near perfected what has become the dominating sound of modern metalcore.  For all the bands that copied the fusion of hardcore, metal, and melodic vocals this album pioneered, even five years after Alive or Just Breathing was released, it STILL kicks the crap out of 98% of the genre it arguably popularized.  Vocalist Jesse Leach pulls out all the stops and steals the show on this blitzkrieg record, and even though his successor Howard Jones arguably has more range screaming or singing, Jesse’s voice has a blazing, passionate honesty and conviction that even the toughest hardcore bands can’t fake, and he sounds like he’s exorcising demons with every syllable on this one.  The guitars are thrash-metal tight, the rhythm sections slams with authority, and the production is absolutely huge – throw this one on a pair of decent speakers and watch the Radiohead fans scatter and run for cover.

SONGS

Alive or Just Breathing blasts off with the punishing “Numbered Days”, a lethal opener that sets the perfect tone for this album with it’s seamless blend of melody, crushing grooves, and hardcore intensity.  “Self Revolution” strays a bit on the more melodic side of things and features a split-second guest appearance from All That Remains scream virtuoso Phil Labonte, but said melodic twist only serves to contrast the punch-a-wall hardcore stomp of “Fixation on the Darkness”.  This leads us to KSE’s first single “My Last Serenade”, and this song is nothing short of a metalcore masterpiece, with a ridiculously addictive chorus sandwiched between pummeling verses that’ll wear out the repeat button on your iPod faster than you can say “What ever happened to rapcore?”  After such a brutal display of songwriting excellence, “Life to Lifeless” feels a bit like it’s missing something, but “Just Barely Breathing” fires on all cylinders and features some of Leach’s best introspective lyrics and melodies.  Right when you think the album might be taking a more melancholy twist, “To the Sons of Man” blasts out of the speakers packing 2 minutes of Slayer-esque full-throttle thrash intensity, which flows perfectly into the emotion-laden “Temple From the Within”, a re-recorded track from their self-titled debut that absolutely slams and is definitely one of my personal picks here.  The closest we’ll get to a ballad on this one comes up in the form of “The Element of One”, but that’s not saying much – this track is a perfect example of how more melody doesn’t mean sacrificing an ounce of brutality and attitude.  “Without a Name” is a cool dual-acoustic guitar interlude that leads us to the monstrous slow-burn, take-no-prisoners closer “Rise Inside”, which ends the album on a surprisingly positive note and commendably concludes the album’s 45 minutes of adrenaline-blasted fury, even if it’s not the strongest track to be found on the record.

CONCLUSION

This album is really all but untouchable in it’s genre, as far as I’m concerned.  The only two critiques I made above are fairly minor and all but irrelevant given the overall excellence of the record.  What we have here is a modern classic – towering vocals, slamming guitars, huge breakdowns, furious metal riffing, and lyrics that make darn near everyone else look shallow by comparison.  Essential listening for any hard music fan.  Period.

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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