Three very different generations of modern metal collided at the River Cree Resort & Casino as Killswitch Engage brought Machine Head and Malevolence together for a triple bill built almost entirely around riffs, aggression and sheer volume.
Despite sharing plenty of musical DNA, the three bands approached heaviness from noticeably different directions. Malevolence delivered the youthful hostility and hardcore influence of the night, Machine Head brought more than three decades of experience, and Killswitch Engage closed things out with a combination of melody and aggression that helped establish the blueprint for an entire generation of metalcore.
Malevolence
Sheffield’s Malevolence were handed the responsibility of getting the night moving, and subtlety was never going to be part of the equation.
Opening with “Trenches,” the band immediately established the crushing, groove-heavy attack that would define their short but punishing six-song set. “Life Sentence” followed, keeping the pressure firmly on before “Self Supremacy” reached further back into the band’s catalogue.
The band’s combination of metallic hardcore, groove and metalcore translated into a punishing live sound. Alex Taylor’s vocals were delivered with outright hostility, while the guitars supplied the thick, down-tuned foundation that gives Malevolence much of their physical impact.
But simply calling Malevolence heavy doesn’t fully capture what sets them apart in an increasingly crowded field.
There is considerably more happening underneath the breakdowns. Groove plays an enormous role in their songwriting, while melodic guitar passages and flashes of traditional heavy metal prevent the songs from becoming an endless succession of breakdowns. “Keep Your Distance” demonstrated that balance particularly well, combining hardcore aggression with the enormous rhythmic punch that has become central to the band’s identity.
“On Broken Glass” continued the assault before Malevolence closed their set with “If It’s All the Same to You.”
That closing choice also highlighted the evolution in the band’s songwriting. Malevolence can deliver the blunt-force heaviness expected from metallic hardcore, but their strongest material increasingly shows an interest in dynamics, melody and atmosphere. Those elements give the aggression considerably more impact when the band inevitably drops back into something crushing.
The production at River Cree complemented that approach. The low end was enormous without completely swallowing the guitars, and the drums maintained enough definition to keep the band’s rhythmic attack from becoming muddy.
Six songs didn’t give Malevolence much time to make their case, but they didn’t need it. From the opening weight of “Trenches” through the final moments of “If It’s All the Same to You,” Malevolence weren’t there simply to warm up the room. They were there to hit it with a sledgehammer.
Machine Head
Then came Machine Head. Where Malevolence brought youthful violence, Machine Head brought authority.
Opening with “Imperium” was about as effective a statement of intent as the band could make. The Through the Ashes of Empires opener remains one of Machine Head’s great slow-building weapons, gradually escalating before Robb Flynn and company unleash the kind of enormous riff that has defined the band’s best work.
From there, Machine Head jumped forward nearly two decades with “CHØKE ØN THE ASHES ØF YØUR HATE,” immediately demonstrating the breadth of material represented in their eight-song set.
Flynn has spent more than three decades developing one of metal’s most identifiable approaches to the guitar riff, and hearing Machine Head live remains a reminder of just how much of the band’s identity is built around that instrument. Those riffs sounded absolutely enormous inside River Cree.
“Game Over” brought the set into the Bloodstone & Diamonds era before “ØUTSIDER” represented the band’s newest chapter. Rather than concentrating on one period, Machine Head used the limited time available to move through several different incarnations of the band.
That approach worked particularly well because Machine Head’s catalogue has never remained stylistically stationary. Groove metal, thrash, nu-metal and increasingly ambitious arrangements have all appeared throughout the band’s history. What ties the strongest material together is an understanding of dynamics and, above all else, the power of a great riff.
“Locust” was a perfect example. One of the more expansive songs of the set, it demonstrated Machine Head’s ability to move between melody, atmosphere, and crushing heaviness without sacrificing momentum. Their songs aren’t simply heavy from beginning to end. Tension is allowed to build, riffs are given room to breathe, and quieter passages make the inevitable eruption feel significantly larger.
“BØNESCRAPER” followed before “Is There Anybody Out There?” pushed the set toward its conclusion.
Flynn remained a commanding presence throughout, capable of moving between aggressive vocals and more melodic passages while simultaneously handling demanding guitar work. The performance was tight without becoming sterile, preserving the sense of danger that heavy music needs when played live.
The production was equally important. Machine Head needs clarity because there is considerable detail buried underneath the sheer size of their guitar sound. At River Cree, the riffs remained articulate while the rhythm section supplied enough low-end force to make them hit with genuine physical impact.
Then Machine Head went all the way back to the beginning. “Davidian.” More than three decades after appearing on Burn My Eyes, the song remains one of the defining pieces of Machine Head’s catalogue and an ideal closer. Its central riff still carries the primitive, groove-driven force that made the band’s earliest material so formidable, and placing it after songs from considerably later periods made the longevity of Machine Head’s songwriting impossible to ignore.
Eight songs might seem short for a band with a catalogue stretching back more than 30 years, but there was remarkably little wasted space.
From “Imperium” to “Davidian,” Machine Head managed to compress multiple eras of their career into a set that emphasized both evolution and continuity. The production has changed. The lineup has changed. The boundaries of their songwriting have expanded considerably.
The riffs remain monstrous. For a band more than three decades into its career, Machine Head didn’t come across as an exercise in nostalgia. They sounded hungry, precise, and genuinely dangerous. Following that was not going to be easy.
Killswitch Engage
Killswitch Engage answered the challenge with an 18-song set that reached across the band’s career while also making room for newer material.
The opening sequence alone made the band’s intentions obvious. “Fixation on the Darkness” immediately reached back to Alive or Just Breathing, before “This Is Absolution” and “The End of Heartache” pushed the room directly into the material that helped turn Killswitch Engage into one of the defining bands of 2000s metalcore.
Rather than saving “The End of Heartache” for the end of the night, Killswitch Engage dropped one of their biggest songs just three tracks into the set. It worked. The song remains one of the clearest demonstrations of what made Killswitch Engage different from so many bands that followed in their wake. Crushing guitars and harsh vocals are paired with genuine vulnerability and a chorus built for thousands of voices. The combination of aggression and melody has been imitated countless times since, but the original formula still carries tremendous weight live. “Aftermath” followed before “A Bid Farewell” and “In Due Time” continued the journey through different eras of the band’s catalogue.
Jesse Leach was at the centre of it all. Leach’s ability to move from ferocious screams into powerful clean vocals remains fundamental to Killswitch Engage’s identity. That contrast gives the songs an emotional dimension beyond simple aggression. Much of the band’s lyricism revolves around struggle, perseverance, loss, and finding strength through adversity, and Leach performs those themes with the conviction required to keep them from becoming empty motivational slogans.
Musically, Killswitch Engage were remarkably tight. Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel remain one of metalcore’s defining guitar partnerships, their combination of harmonized leads, melodic passages, and precision rhythm playing providing much of the band’s unmistakable sound. Mike D’Antonio’s bass and Justin Foley’s drumming supplied the muscle underneath them, giving even the band’s most melodic moments a considerable amount of weight.
Then, of course, there is Dutkiewicz himself. His stage presence remains hilariously at odds with the precision of the music being played. While the material requires exact timing and disciplined musicianship, Dutkiewicz carries himself as if someone has accidentally given the class clown a guitar and unrestricted access to a metal show. Somehow, both sides coexist perfectly.
“To the Sons of Man” and “Unleashed” kept the momentum moving before “Hate by Design” provided another reminder of Killswitch Engage’s ability to write riffs that are immediately recognizable without abandoning melody.
“Where It Dies” was followed by “Forever Aligned,” one of the newer additions to the band’s catalogue, before “The Signal Fire” brought another surge of melody and aggression.
“I Believe” represented the band’s newest era, coming from This Consequence, while still fitting naturally alongside songs written decades earlier. That continuity is one of the more impressive aspects of Killswitch Engage’s songwriting. The production may evolve, and individual elements may shift, but the fundamental balance between heaviness, melody, and emotional weight remains unmistakably theirs.
But the closing stretch was where the set became particularly vicious; “Daylight Dies,” “Rose of Sharyn,” “This Fire Burns,” “My Curse,” and “My Last Serenade.” Five songs representing some of the strongest and most recognizable material in Killswitch Engage’s catalogue were stacked together to finish the night. “Rose of Sharyn” remains one of the band’s strongest examples of emotional metalcore songwriting, balancing grief and melody against enormous guitar riffs. “This Fire Burns” shifted the atmosphere toward pure adrenaline before “My Curse” produced one of the night’s most immediately recognizable openings.
By that point, there was little need for introductions. The opening guitar melody did the job. “My Curse” has become one of Killswitch Engage’s signature songs because it encapsulates nearly everything the band does well. The guitar work is melodic without losing its weight, the verses carry aggression, and the chorus opens into something enormous without feeling disconnected from the heaviness surrounding it.
Then came “My Last Serenade.” Ending with one of the defining tracks from Alive or Just Breathing brought the performance almost full circle after beginning the night with “Fixation on the Darkness.” More than two decades after those songs helped reshape American heavy music, they remain capable of standing comfortably beside the band’s newer material. That longevity says plenty about the songwriting.
Three Generations, One Very Heavy Night
What made the night work was that the lineup never felt repetitive. Malevolence showed what a younger generation can do by combining hardcore aggression with groove and increasingly ambitious guitar work. Machine Head demonstrated how decades of evolution can produce a band capable of sounding polished without losing its edge. Killswitch Engage closed the night by showing why their particular combination of melodic death metal influence, hardcore aggression, and massive choruses became one of the foundations of modern metalcore.
The sound production throughout the night was appropriately enormous, but heaviness alone wasn’t what made the performances successful. Each band retained enough definition for the musicianship underneath the volume to remain apparent.
Songwriting ultimately separated them. Malevolence relied on physicality and groove. Machine Head built around towering riffs and dynamics. Killswitch Engage used contrast, brutality against melody, despair against hope, and screamed vocals against soaring choruses.
Killswitch Engage’s setlist took full advantage of that contrast. From “Fixation on the Darkness” through “The End of Heartache,” “Hate by Design,” “The Signal Fire,” and “My Curse,” before finally closing with “My Last Serenade,” the 18-song performance wasn’t confined to one chapter of the band’s history. It demonstrated how remarkably consistent the core Killswitch Engage sound has remained while still allowing the band to evolve.
Malevolence sounded hungry. Machine Head sounded commanding. Killswitch Engage sounded like a band fully aware of the catalogue at its disposal, and completely capable of still doing it justice. River Cree didn’t simply get three heavy bands on Saturday night. It got three generations of heavy music showing exactly why the riff is still king.
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