Review of Killswitch Engage “Incarnate”
14th March 2016
Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage. Picture by: Katja Ogrin / EMPICS Entertainment
For 17 years, Massachusetts born band Killswitch Engage have been producing their high quality brand of melodic metalcore music, expertly blending hard riffs, blastbeat drumming and heavy beatdowns with hugely melodic choruses, creating many incredible anthems.
In that time and in between relentless touring, they have released seven albums, all of which are at least great and in the case of 2004 release The End Of Heartache, an genuine masterpiece. Now they have returned with their latest effort Inccarnate, and once again, they have done what they are very good at.
Incarnate is, as always, a very strong piece from beginning to end. Whether you want double pedal filled headbanging, like track 11 The Great Deceit or more soaring choruses, such as track two Hate By Design, this album will give you what you want and will do it repeatedly. A negative that could be laid at this album is that it is not anything new for Killswitch Engage and sees them stickly fairly rigidly to their formula but when you are as good at doing something as they are at producing grade-A metalcore, you would not usually stray too far from that template.
One point that is important to make is that this album is a bit of a grower. On first listen, there is not much that massively stands out and it sounds like just another metalcore album, which of course it is.
However, after a few listens, it starts to release its hidden magic and begins to feel like another great Killswitch Engage album.
Incarnate is, once again, a very good album from Killswitch Engage. It does not live to their better albums, such as The End Of Heartache or 2002 release Alive Or Just Breathing, but that is not to say it is a bad album. This is not a band that make bad albums and they have continued that trend with this release.
