Adam D and Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage on Atonement and keeping it fun as BFFs for 25+ years.
When a bandās been around for a couple of decades, theyāve usually become a well-oiled machine, a harmony of personalities, a family that didnāt just choose each other but has developed a balance and process that both produces consistently and endures. Metalcore band Killswitch Engage is one group that possesses that special alchemy.
This summer, they released their eighth full-length studio album, Atonement. The album delivers 11 new tracks of the Killswitch sound: blistering metal arrangements with vocal and guitar harmonies, surprisingly melodic choruses balanced by screaming lead vocals, and triumphant, often visceral lyrics. Itās an approach thatās worked particularly well for the band since their third LP, 2004ās Grammy-nominated The End of Heartache. āCanāt change who we are,ā laughs Adam Dutkiewicz, one half of the bandās guitar attack.
He and co-guitarist Joel Stroetzel donāt confine themselves to lead or rhythm roles. Their goal is to synchronize. Thatās also reflective of the bandās overall creative attitude. No one acts exactly like the leader, or father of the āfamily.ā Itās very clear theyāre all brothers, if not quintuplets, with different personalities that happen to complement each other.
The recording of Atonement was a bit different from earlier Killswitch Engage albums due to the amount of interruptions. It took three-and-a-half yearsāin part due to vocalist Jesse Leach needing surgery after developing polyps on his vocal cords, and the band being invited to tour with Iron Maiden last summer. The album also came after the band switched labels from Roadrunner to Metal Blade. Dutkiewicz has been the groupās producer since day one, and was a bit burnt out by the endābut not because of any tendencies toward perfectionism in the studio. āA record should be a snapshot in time,ā he says. āYou can listen to it two years later and say you should have done things different, but then it wouldnāt be who you were at that period of time.ā
The 6-string duo have plenty to say about everything from their commitment to the band to their passion for gear, which balances the old and the newālooking toward the future even as they celebrate their history.
Itās been 20 years since KSEās eponymous debut. Was there anything different about your approach to Atonement?
Adam Dutkiewicz: I wanted to write songs that were a little bit more on the aggressive side, just ācause I feel like this band can so easily fall into the trap of doing [too many] mid-tempo songs. Beyond that, it was pretty much the same thing.
Joel Stroetzel:Disarm the Descent [from 2013] was a bit thrashier than [2016ās] Incarnate. We wanted to get back to doing some stuff more like thatāget more guitar work going on.
Is it true that each bandmember contributed three to five demos this time, as well?
Stroetzel: Yeah, pretty much everybody writes riffs and then once we get enough ideas together we figure out arrangements. Weāll throw it out to Jesse and see which songs he gravitates to. Heāll go out in the woods and sit around and write bits and pieces of some ideasāverses, choruses, whatever he has in his mind. Then usually itās him and Adam that sit down with the music and try to piece it all together.
Dutkiewicz: Itās weird, because now we live so far away from each other. I moved to the West Coast, Justin [Foley, drummer] lives in Florida, Joelās in Western Massachusetts, Mike [DāAntonio, bassist] is near Boston, and Jesseās in New York, so we canāt really get together and jam. We try to write music on our own and show each other our ideas through email. If we like āem, they make the [cut], but if we donāt like āem they just get thrown in the trash. Or, we actually do get together and see if we can make them better.
How do you decide which ones to keep?
Dutkiewicz: Just conversations together. Itās kind of a lengthy process, because obviously it has to make it past our own individual drawing boards first. Iāll work on a song for a good four hours, then shelve it for a day or two, then listen to it again. A lot of the time I end up throwing it out. Or if the ideas there just need a little tweaking, Iāll work on it a bit more, and then Iāll finally email it out. If everyone says they like it, weāll just use it the way it is, but if some people say, āyeah, we like the chorus part but the rest of the song sucks,ā weāll try to get some new parts.
What was the recording process like for this record?
Stroetzel: Justin flew out to San Diego to do drums there with Adam. Then we had a little portable rig and Mike knocked out a lot of his bass tracks on headphones in hotel rooms on days off. As far as guitar and vocals, we did a lot of that in Adamās studio in San Diego. We did some of the guitars at my place [in Massachusetts], and vocals were kind of a mixture: San Diego and Zing Studios [in Westfield, Massachusetts], where weāve done a lot of the records in the past. It took a while to piece it all together.
There were a fair number of complications along the way.ā¦
Dutkiewicz: It was a pain in my ass, absolutely! It felt like it would never end, to be honest with you. The longer you work on a project, the more you have the capability of losing your focus and clarity on it. I felt like this one went on a little too long, but we can only do so much when things come up, like Jesse having to get surgery, and weāre not going to say ānoā to touring with Iron Maiden for three months! We have to roll with the punches.
Adam, youāve been producing the bandās albums since the beginning. Whatās that like for you both?
Dutkiewicz: My most important role is resident jackass [laughs]. I try to be the guy in the band that makes the shows as fun as possible, and makes sure weāre not that band thatās perceived as taking themselves very seriously. But yeah, I definitely have another role of being that guy who likes to spearhead the record production, get everything organized and structured, and pull it all together. Since I was the guy that started the band with Mike, thatās just been my role from the beginning. I love being so active in the creative process of what it is to be in Killswitch Engage. Itās fun.
Stroetzel: Adamās really good at doing the double-duty thing, as far as writing, playing on the record, producing everybody, and producing himself. He pushes everybody pretty hard to do their best and get stuff right. Iāve been around when he tracks his own guitars, and he holds himself to that same standard. Heās not just bullying the rest of us. He really has the greater good at heart. Itās good having him steer the ship.
TIDBIT: Recording Atonement took more than three years due to factors such as vocal-cord surgery for singer Jesse Leach, and an interim tour with Iron Maiden.
Dutkiewicz: I donāt think of it like Iām the leader of the band. Weāre all in it together, you know? I just feel like Iām probably the most driven in helping get the songs finished. Itās in my blood, versus how a lot of the other guys have trouble finishing ideas and sentences.
Stroetzel: Which Iām very jealous of. Me and Mike will come up with a lot of parts, and we tend to need each otherās help to piece it together and make cohesive songs. Iāll sit around and try to program drums for a song, and Iām not very good at that. Definitely helps to have a couple guys with drummersā brains actually put in the right fills to make parts fit together.
It must also be nice not having to worry about being assigned a producer you might not like.
Dutkiewicz: Exactly. Itās always felt organic and homegrown with us.
Stroetzel: Weāve always been a pretty self-contained unit. Even the artworkāMikeās done all the artwork for the band since the beginning. We donāt really have too many outside opinions coming in as far as the vision for the band.
Whatās your favorite song on the album?
Dutkiewicz: I always say the one with [Testament vocalist] Chuck Billy, āThe Crownless King,ā just because I love his voice on that song so much. Heās been one of the greatest metal singers out there for so many years, so itās just an honor to have him on the record. His voice is killer.
Stroetzel: Testamentās been one of my favorite bands since I was a kid, and I always loved Chuckās voice, so it was really cool that he was able to sing on that. āThe Signal Fireā is a fun one to play. Those are some of the ones we just introduced to set.
How do you feel about the album after letting it sit for a while?
Dutkiewicz: I havenāt listened to it since we made itātwo years straight was enough. Iām excited that thereās a lot of people that are hearing it for the first time who like it. Thatās the ultimate goalātrying to make our fans happyāand there are some songs on there that Iām proud of. I kind of donāt hate the first half of the record [laughs]. I think Jesse did a really good job, too. Lyrics can really make or break a song for me.
Joel Stroetzel provides the tips on how to properly nail the main part to a ripping song off of Alive or Just Breathing.
And don't forget to check out the band's Rig Rundown.
Guitarist Joel Stroetzel demonstrates how to play the main verse part to the lead single off Incarnate.
And don't forget to check out the band's Rig Rundown.