Killswitch Engage

You never get away with just making great music. Never. *Killswitch Engage *make great music; they make the best metalcore around, but they have an added dimension. The hilarious dynamic between their frontman Howard Jones and their guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz is what helps this band’s live show rise from memorable to legendary.

Puerile though the humour may be, look past it and you’ll see a relationship that extends beyond practical jokes and light-hearted deprecation into the realms of (ridiculously emo) musical impossibility. Tonight, however, is the rescheduled London leg of this tour. Rescheduled because of a worryingly serious back injury to Dutkiewicz.

Lesser bands would have crumbled at the prospect of performing in front of a Brixton Academy’s worth of expectant fans but not Killswitch. They drafted in ex-Soilwork guitarist Peter Wichers and the show went on.

To do this show down would be to call it metalcore karaoke, but it’s clearly the best kind. Jones tries his best to sing all the words without the banter and the sideshow of his manic guitarist friend, but he constantly finds his voice drowned out by the thousands in front of him.

The miserable lyrics that Jones spews are usually tempered by the antics of Dutkiewicz but they avoid tonight being a sombre affair. Instead of dwelling on the hopefully temporary loss of their friend, Killswitch remain professional to the end, lapping up the emphatic applause and love they receive here.

They blend old material with their new songs seamlessly, updating the levels to reflect the huge, near-cinematic sound the Boston crew achieved on their latest long-player As Daylight Dies. They stalk and headbang their way through the next year’s classic tunes without seeming the slightest bit contrived.

Jones’ fierce roars, assuaged by his solid crooning, are delivered with the confidence and surety of a man who knows he can take on the world. When you hear the crowd singing his words back for the umpteenth time, you realist how rare it is to find music this (apparently) inaccessible that matters to quite so many people. But here they are.

You’d have thought that without a major ingredient such as their lead guitarist this show wouldn’t be legendary, and you’d have been right. But Killswitch Engage sure as hell made this show memorable. The thousands of smiling faces on the streets of Brixton later tonight are testament to that.