Album review: Killswitch Engage – This Consequence

Back in November, just as Killswitch Engage unleashed barnstorming single Forever Aligned, its creators lifted the lid to Kerrang! on the record it heralded. Their ninth album, it soon became clear, had many questions about the unjustness of a world where, as Leonard Cohen once wrote, ‘Everybody knows the fight was fixed / The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.’ Then there were the travails closer to home for the Massachusetts veterans, with frontman Jesse Leach opening up about the doubts he had about his abilities as a writer and performer, provoked by injury and his bandmates’ unsparing criticism.

If you believe the maxim that great art comes from suffering, then you’ll be expecting this to be a masterpiece from a band that know very well how to make them. Despite its explorations of the historic precedent for society’s failings, behind the scenes drama and heavy-hitting musical grandeur, however, This Consequence is an offering of lofty peaks rather than the sustained elevation we know its authors are capable of.

Opener Abandon Us sets things off exactly as you’d want and expect, thanks to its meticulous guitar work and cry-to-the-heavens chorus, which confirms that KSE have reacquainted themselves with their angrier, more righteous impulses. But while that occasionally leads them to spikier, more experimental terrain, exemplified by the triple threat of Collusion, The Fall Of Us and Broken Glass, elsewhere things can feel like usual Killswitch business (Aftermath) – albeit impressively so.

Much has been made of This Consequence being created by the five members in a room together for the first time in years. It’s certainly a positive development, even if it makes you wonder whether a band luxuriating in their creative process, and fans grateful for the first KSE album in six years, might settle for a lesser effort.

Let’s be frank: Killswitch have never half-arsed anything in their career, and this is an exceptionally made record with moments of grandstanding excellence. It’s just that some of those moments are markedly more excellent than others, and it’s the ability to note those contrasts that leaves you yearning for a more consistent experience. This, it must be said, is a consequence of Killswitch’s own high standards.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine, Lamb Of God

This Consequence is released on February 21 via Metal Blade

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