Years before the 1999 formation of Killswitch Engage, numerous Swedish bands had already mixed melodic death metal with a blend of harsh and tuneful vocals. But it took the release of Killswitch’s second album, 2002’s
Alive or Just Breathing which came out May 21, 2002 for the heavy metal mainstream to get turned on to the musical hybrid that would eventually be called metalcore.
At the time, the band members vocalist Jesse Leach, multi-instrumentalist Adam Dutkiewicz, guitarists Joel Stroetzel and Pete Cortese and bassist Mike D’Antonio – were struggling members of a Western Massachusetts music scene that also included Shadows Fall, Unearth and All That Remains. While all of these groups eventually gained abundant media attention and varying degrees of success, it was Killswitch Engage that rose to the top of the heap and became the most influential U.S. metalcore band. It might never have happened without the energy, intensity and musical diversity that propelled