Times of Grace, the long awaited collaboration between Killswitch Engage’s riffmeister Adam D and afformentioned bands original singer Jesse Leach has finally arrived, and boy, is it a banger. Despite threats that this album would be a major departure from anything the duo have previously done, the album really doesn’t offer anything that you haven’t experienced in this world. It just does it much better.
Album opener “Strength In Numbers” is a stonewall classic metal song, a sing a long anthem in the vein of Alive Or Just Breathing KsE, with hooks catchier than anything in the metal world today, and a shredding solo. Jesse’s vocals are cleaner and stronger than ever, and the familiar “scream for the boys, sing for the girls” motif that made metalcore so popular in the past decade has pretty much been perfected here.
Standout tracks “Live In Love”, “Willing” and the title track all go to show what we have clearly been missing out on since Jesse went walkies in 2002, however the real surprise here is how much of an amazing talent Adam D really is. He makes difficult riffs seem easy as pie, and showcases his vocal abilities well on pretty much all of the songs. And yes, there are pinch harmonic squeals for the metalcore purists amongst you.
The more observant listeners to KsE will notice that their first album was blatently riddled with Christian lyrics, being how Jesse is a massive Christo, and this album carries on that tradition. The album was wrote when Adam struggled with his own personal demons and the input from Jesse makes this an album very Jesus heavy, not that any of that should matter to the agnostics and atheists amongst you who simply love a good banging tune. All im saying is be prepared, cos that shit gets rammed into your ears from the front to that back of this album. If it is indeed a “Christan Metal” work, its way more impressive than anything bands like POD and Creed have released in their careers, unfortunately this album probably wont sell a tenth of what those bands achived, shame really.
I had massive hopes riding on this album, and such was expected to be let down. Im happy to report that this does not do such a thing. Easily the best album released this year in the metal world, and goes in my mind as an instant classic. Lets just hope the next Killswitch album lives up to the awesomeness of this. Howard Jones, listen and learn my friend.
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