KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's JESSE LEACH On Early 2000s Metalcore: "The Good Bands Found Their Sound Over Time"

Killswitch Engage is arguably one of the biggest metalcore acts of all time, and certainly have their place within the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal. In an interview with Metal Hammer, vocalist Jesse Leach and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz weighed in on the explosion of metalcore that followed Killswitch Engage's success in the early 2000s.

Dutkiewicz originally stated that he felt nobody really ripped off Killswitch Engage, noting that people "always say we've influenced so many bands, but each band has their own identity, I don't think think anyone ever tried to rip us off."

Leach had an entirely different perspective on the situation, saying that a lot of younger bands around that time struck him as derivative.

"I was only half paying attention to the scene because after I left Killswitch I got more into doom and stoner rock, but these younger bands felt derivative to me. The good ones found their sound over time, but there was an over-saturation of bands who were churning out this big riff, heavy verse, melodic chorus thing. It felt tired, like labels were looking for those bands because they sounded like a band who were becoming successful."

The "over-saturation of bands" portion of the comment really hits home for pretty much anyone paying attention to trends in metal. One that always stands out was the absolutely unavoidable wave of djent bands in the late 2000s and early 2010s. You know, where every band had a "nouns" name and some variation of neon artwork? That one. So yeah – it's bound to happen, and certainly happened with metalcore.

Killswitch Engage played a massive livestream event in August 2021 at The Palladium in Worcester, MA and is releasing that performance as a live album called Live At The Palladium. Live At The Palladium's tracklist is as follows, and pre-orders are available here from the band and here via Metal Blade.