KILLSWITCH ENGAGE’s JOEL STROETZEL: “There’s A Lot Of Aggressive Stuff On This One”

The first new Killswitch Engage record since Atonement in 2019 is slowly but surely getting done. Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach recently revealed he’d just finished up vocals for the record, and handed it all over to guitarist and producer Adam Dutkiewicz for edits and all that fun stuff.

But what does the record sound like? According to Killswitch Engage guitarist Joel Stroetzel in an interview with the A Swedish Fika With show, it leans a little harder into the band’s faster and more aggressive material.

“It definitely sounds like a Killswitch record,” said Stroetzel. “I think a lot of the songs are on the heavier side. A lot of fast songs. There’s still all the melody and stuff that we normally do, but there’s a lot of aggressive stuff on this one.”

Leach previously noted in a 2023 interview with Primordial Radio that Killswitch Engage was making it a point to not repeat themselves with the new material

“The album is… taking a lot longer than, I think, any of us anticipated, because there’s a lot of quality control going on,” said Leach. “And making sure that it’s fresh; we’re not repeating ourselves. So that process has been a little arduous but I think necessary because we don’t wanna put out something that people are gonna go, ‘Oh, yeah. Another Killswitch record. Whatever.'”