My Last Serenade

Recently I was thinking about the distinction between the nineties definition of 'metalcore' (i.e., underground bands like Harvest and Overcast), and the term as it applies today (i.e., a more mainstream genre that refers to bands like Bullet For My Valentine). There are few, if any, musical or aesthetic similarities between these styles. It is tempting to see the different 'variants' of metalcore as being unrelated. But it begs the question, was there ever a common thread between them? If so, what was it?

Killswitch Engage is the answer. This band began at the end of the nineties, and their self-titled debut album was released on Ferret Records in 2000. It was a difficult record to find. Ferret had limited distribution in the UK compared to European labels like Goodlife. I managed to find that record though, I thought it was quite good. It fitted my schema of metalcore bands like Overcast, Aftershock and Corrin. Of course, this is no coincidence. Killswitch Engage arose from those bands. A couple of members had been in Aftershock. Bassist Mike D'Antonio came from Overcast (his distinctive art-style adorned most of the records from this era/scene). Vocalist Jesse Leach had come from Corrin and another band called Nothing Stays Gold. Some of these bands were better than others, but all of them were steeped in the underground metalcore tradition.

I remember the exact moment when Killswitch Engage broke out. It happened with the release of this particular song; "My Last Serenade", which was promoted in advance of their second album (“Alive or Just Breathing”). The band had just signed to Roadrunner, which resulted in plenty of subsequent promotion and airplay. I remember hearing this song for the first time in a bog-standard English rock/metal nightclub. I was baffled when I found out that it was Killswitch Engage. This was one of ‘my’ bands from an obscure scene that no-one cared about, yet now they were being played alongside Linkin Park and Disturbed in a mainstream rock club. This ascendance was not something I'd ever expected to see.

"My Last Serenade" was the perfect song for Roadrunner to launch Killswitch Engage to the masses. It has the one thing that mainstream rock audiences love; a soaring, impassioned chorus. The use of clean vocals alongside angry vocals had served Roadrunner well on Fear Factory's “Demanufacture” in the mid-nineties. Here, Killswitch Engage presented this formula alongside thrash-inspired riffs (rare for mainstream metal bands back then). This song was tailor-made for all the kids who grew up listening to Papa Roach and Disturbed, and who wanted something edgier and harder (but not unpalatable). The Andy Sneap production goes for maximum commercial appeal, being about as powerful and crunchy as anything from the time. Roadrunner knew what they were doing here.

This is the song that bridged between the 'old' metalcore and the 'new' metalcore. All the stomping, crashing, slightly thrashy elements of modern metalcore can be traced back here (including the genre's reliance on anthemic choruses). This song impelled a new generation of bands to commercial heights that many people (such as myself) would have thought impossible. Personally, the song doesn't hit as hard as I would like it to, and I think the chorus returns one too many times (i.e., it isn’t very subtle). However, I accept that this song wasn't aimed at people like me, who were busy listening to our old Harvest and Shai Hulud records. This song was aimed at a new generation, and it struck a chord with them. “My Last Serenade” is a moment of cultural and musical significance.