Review Summary: Good Music for a Good Cause
Killswitch Engage is the band that got me into metal, and extreme music in general. I wore out my deluxe cd copy of “Alive or Just Breathing”, and several of the most played songs on my mp3 player came from “As Daylight Dies”. However, after Jesse and Howard’s second switch at vocalist, I found myself coming back to albums such as these and “The End of Heartache” more than their new material. Outside of a handful of tracks on “Disarm the Descent”, the latest tracks from the metalcore legends just seemed to retread their old sounds and never hooked me in as much as those previous albums. However, when I saw Killswitch had dropped a project on Bandcamp for charity (and having just received my stimulus check), I decided to drop a few bucks on “Atonement II”. While this certainly seemed like a positive scenario for all parties involved, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself listening to the project five or six times in a row after it finished downloading it, a first since blaring “As Daylight Dies” at unsafe volume on my earbuds for the entirety of a road trip to see relatives back in high school.
For a six track EP of B-Sides, “Atonement II” is surprisingly engaging. The EP kicks off with a blistering riff, and some of the hardcore passages punched out by Adam and Joel on guitar hit as hard as any the band have written. Jesse’s harsh vocals sound as good as ever, and add a signature piece of the Killswitch sound that puts this EP above a plethora of others in the genre. Mike’s legendary bass playing even shows up in certain songs (such as “Hollow Convictions”), and adds some depth to them (as well as simply sounding great). While these tracks may not have made the band’s most recent album, it’s clear that they were given appropriate attention, and their production sounds clean and aggressive. Furthermore, the diversity of the songs on this brief collection ensures its replayability.
While each of the songs on “Atonement II” have their own ideas instrumentally and vocally, some of these ideas work better than others. Some of the slower tempo tracks that rely more on melody are less captivating, and some of Jesse’s cleans come off as less powerful than his low growls and hardcore shouts. While none of these tracks are mediocre, when compared to the speed and heaviness of tracks like “Killing of Leviathan” they don’t hit quite as hard. However, the mix of tempos and melodic passages keeps this project interesting, even if some of the songs share the trope of heavy passages followed by lighter choruses. Overall, with “Atonement II”, Killswitch have provided a good EP that will benefit a noble cause, and one that contains some surprisingly strong material. I encourage any fans of the band and genre to pick it up.
