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Is it a coincidence that, with Disarm The Descent, Killswitch Engage have recorded their best album since 2002’s Alive Or Just Breathing? Or is it that the return of vocalist Jesse Leach, who left soon after Just Breathing was released, has reinvigorated the Massachusetts metalheads?

This is a thunderous, roaring, heavy set of 12 songs, played with a ferocity and purpose the band seemed to have lost a while ago. From The Hell In Me to Time Will Not Remain, this is music with the safety catch off. Leach’s vocals are savage, yet also offer the occasional hint of something more subtle, and Adam Dutkiewicz (who also produced the album) delivers some of the best lead guitar moments of his career.

This is an album that refuses to sit still and stagnate. The mix from Andy Sneap ensures the energy never falters, while A Tribute To The Fallen and All That We Have are assured of classic-Killswitch status.

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.

Killswitch Engage: Disarm The Descent

Lock. Load. Kill!