Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing (Roadrunner)

Alive or Just Breathing has been hyped as a return to classic heaviness, as an almost death knell for this pseudo nu metal plaguing the streets. What’s interesting is this album is not particularly old-school metal, but in actual fact a hard hitting slab of metalcore, based in the old ways but in no way restricted to it. Even though the metalcore tag is in itself ridiculous, in this sense it perfectly describes the marriage between the blistering riffs, pummeling rhythms and positive lyrics that Killswitch Engage deal in.

A slightly weak commercial-sounding production masks some of the true strength of this material, but the catchy and fiery riffing does manage to show through at a relentless pace. A better defined drum sound though would have given it a stronger backbone to work with. As with most hardcore albums, the riffs largely focus on rhythms, although the pounding is occasionally broken up by bursts of well-placed melody and some highly infectious choruses – indeed the abundant hooks fuel this album as much as the aggression does. Vocals form the major focal point, with Jesse Leach utilising anything from a strongly moving clean singing voice to an almost melodic death-style rasp. With that said, Killswitch Engage almost seem to draw as much from modern day Swedish death metal as they do from classic thrash and hardcore. Certain parts of ‘To the Sons of Man’, ‘Vide Infra’ and to a lesser extent ‘Self Revolution’ could have sat comfortably on any archetypal Gothenburg death metal album.

Sitting right beside those moments are memorable clean ones that are instantly catchy and uplifting, such as ‘My Last Serenade’ or ‘Just Barely Breathing’. Lyrically speaking the band draw parallels with Hatebreed and their ilk, expressing messages of positivity like closer ‘Rise Inside’, with its pure hardcore theme of banding together for the common good. Worked into the songwriting are elements of groove, and also hints of the emo card that’s been passed around a fair bit lately. Sadly lacking however is any attempt at lead playing, a trait that would have added that nice extra dimension to the proceedings. Nonetheless the end result is a straightforward piece of work that’s both catchy and thumping, driven with enough passion and conviction to keep the energy riding high all the way through. Alive or Just Breathing doesn’t break much new ground in any field or genre, but its accessible and widely appealing crossover style should be turning many heads towards Killswitch Engage.

By: Kev Truong