Not quite the end of my heartache
A disappointing start to the festival. After sadly missing Mastodon I was subjected to the rather bland performance from Killswitch Engage. In the past, I've given this band a rather wide berth and I was interested to see how they'd do on the main stage. Sadly, I felt that their performance was rather lacking.
The crowd failed to be wooed by the somewhat apathetic performance, forcing the lead singer to resort to a barrage of insults, filthy language and pathetic, "bad-boy-metal" talking. I failed to be impressed, and in fact, felt rather sorry for the entire female and child contingents of the festival who were subjected to a barrage of verbal diarrhoea. Honestly, if a band needs to keep on insulting an already bored crowd, the band has clearly failed. Despite the shit stiring, the crowd still failed to get up and mosh, form any circle pits or cheer loudly. Not surprising.
In fairness, the sound wasn't too bad. The drums seemed somewhat overpowered but the lead guitarist had good presence and played solidly for the entire set. I've often believed that Killswitch are a two trick pony with "My Last Serenade" and "The End of Heartache". Perhaps I'm wrong but the band did finish strongly on both of these songs, playing with a little more passsion and less pointless talk. Generally, I felt let down by Killswitch Engage and didn't feel that they really wanted to be there. Less talking trash, and more angry metal melodies next time!