Wednesday the 20th: Killswitch Engage - Hate By Design

     I know, I know, if we're following the linear rules of conventional temporal mechanics, the new Killswitch single (which came out this week) doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a post from last week. But you know that flouting the laws of space-time is one of the things I'm all about, so happy Wednesday the 20th kids, it's "Hate By Design"!

     Killswitch Engage's latest offering of tight metalcore Incarnate is due out in March, but "Hate By Design" is our first taste, and it's... decent. I don't think it's going to blow you away, but then I was never expecting that. It's a solid Killswitch song, but not an instant classic, and not even as instantly "in my brain" as "In Due Time" was last album cycle. The flip side of all this, however, is that if you dug Killswitch's "return to form" occasioned by the return of Jesse then you're probably going to remain on board for the ride that is "Hate By Design" and looks to be Incarnate. Check it out.

Friday: Killswitch Engage - Strength of the Mind

     Your Friday song this week is one of those songs that just kind of fell into our laps. We all knew it was about time for these guys to be working on some new material, and we may even have heard that some writing was going on, but I for one was taken pretty much by surprise when I heard about the new Killswitch Engage single on Thursday.

    Spoiler alert: "Strength of the Mind" does nothing to reinvent Killswitch's sound. If you were hoping that the guys would go all proggy on your next time out or something, I'm afraid you'll be pretty disappointed. If, however, you're looking for some classic Killswitch, look no further: "Strength of the Mind" combines some familiar-sounding-if-still-badass meaty metalcore riffing with the kind of positive message that Jesse (and Howard, really) has always espoused. A big chunk of Killswitch's catalogue could be classified as "self-help metal" without any sarcasm or derision. This one is for anyone who needs a little self-actualizing boost this morning. Crank it.

Sunday: Killswitch Engage - Loyalty

     A few weeks ago I posted about the latest one-off from Mastodon, a new track called "White Walker" they cooked up for a Game of Thrones compilation album, of all things. It's actually a surprisingly good track (ie: not just a shitty cash-in), so I figure you might want to know if there's anything else cool on the second Catch the Throne mixtape.

     And lo, there's at least one other Thrones-themed cut from this record that you might be interested in. Or not. Either way, bottom line, there's a new Killswitch Engage song for you to jam. Most of the songs off this Catch the Throne mixtape have a particular Game of Thrones-related subject, and Killswitch's "Loyalty" is focused on the southern kingdom of Dorne and its ruling House Martell.

     If that kind of nerdiness means nothing to you, try this: "Loyalty" feels a little like it could have appeared on 2013's Disarm the Descent in terms of its balance of hookyness and heaviness. If you dug anything from Jesse's return to the band, check this one out, Game of Thrones fan or not.

Heavy TO Pit Report - Part 1: The Bands

     I told you I'd have some thoughts from Heavy TO, and here they are, even if it did take me a week to write them down. And I have so many thoughts that I think I'm going to make this a two-parter. In this first installment, I'm going to go through each of the bands we actually payed attention to (ie: the ones we went to see) and give little baby reviews of their sets. I'm not going to try and remember set lists or anything like that (mostly because it's 2012 and the Internet does that shit for me), I'm just going to give you my impressions of each band's performance. So let's go!

Song of the Day: Killswitch Engage - Numbered Days

     Heavy TO approaches ever closer, and that means more songs from more bands playing this weekend. Today we've got another band that has new material in the works, and another band I'm pretty stoked about seeing: Killswitch Engage. I'm also stoked to see them back with original vocalist Jesse Leach, who's recently rejoined the band. It's one of the many things that informed my choice of song today.