E-Mail This Article to a Friend The dark stuff Killswitch Engage and In Flames enter the battle zone BY SEAN RICHARDSON

For the better part of the past year, OzzFest and Headbangers Ball types have been buzzing about the new wave of American heavy metal. Starring young bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and Lamb of God, this new wave marks a return to the speed and the finesse of the genre’s 1980s heyday. This month, the movement is enjoying its first real commercial triumph: Killswitch’s new The End of Heartache, their second Roadrunner CD, entered the charts at #21 by selling almost 40,000 copies the week it came out. Around the same time, the Massachusetts group eclipsed 100,000 in sales for their previous album, Alive or Just Breathing. Right now, they’re celebrating by hitting the road with In Flames on a month-long North American tour, dubbed "The Ultimate Battle," that stops by the Palladium in Worcester this Friday.

"It feels like a dream," Killswitch bassist Mike D’Antonio says when I get him on the phone from Austin. "I’ve been doing bands for a good 15 years now, and all the sudden this one just explodes. Every day is a total surprise to me." He’s also relieved by the success, since he sidelined a burgeoning career in graphic arts to pursue metal full-time. "It was a big decision. My parents always told me, ‘Don’t rely on music. You’ve got to go to school and get your design degree.’ So I did four years at Mount Ida College, which was great. I got a job at Clear Channel with them knowing I was only going to be there for a year, because we had just signed the Roadrunner contract. The whole plan was, ‘We’ll go on the road for a year and see if we can pay our bills.’ I’m glad I took the chance."

The first single from Heartache is "Rose of Sharyn," a punked-up elegy to a deceased friend of frontman Howard Jones. "It won’t be long, we’ll meet again," Jones sings, as the maelstrom of the verse gives way to weeping guitar melodies and a more restrained groove. The song is short and punchy, with a solid batch of uplifting hooks atop its menacing foundation. "It has to do with Howard dealing with someone who died on OzzFest," D’Antonio explains. "He struggled with the idea of going home and taking a few shows off, or staying on the tour and mourning from afar. He actually chose to stay, even though we told him to go."

The band shot the "Rose of Sharyn" video in the Southern California desert, on land that was ravaged by last year’s wildfires. Along with the Slayer classic "Seasons in the Abyss," which also takes place in the desert, it has to be one of metal’s all-time sunniest videos. "After the wildfires, the only things left were torched pieces of brush," D’Antonio describes. "It made for a really creepy vibe. You get there and it’s just nothing but smoke and lots of sand. Everyone was stoked on the whole idea. The only bummer was pouring all the sand out of our guitars at the end."

The Killswitch story goes back to two bands, Aftershock and Overcast, who were popular on the New England metalcore scene but flared out at the end of the 1990s. Guitarists Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel, both from Aftershock, joined up with Overcast’s D’Antonio to create the Killswitch songwriting core. "We just said, ‘What are we doing in our old bands that we could improve upon?’ We wanted to make something catchy. We definitely blend a lot of hardcore, Swedish metal, and Metallica-style stuff." D’Antonio says the writing process is very democratic. "I’m the Overcast guy, the heavy-riff guy. I bring a lot of the stop/start, AC/DC-style riffs. Joel’s more of a fast-picking Metallica guy. Adam’s the emo guy: a lot of the choruses and the lighter stuff. It’s a good blend."

With Dutkiewicz again assuming production duties, Heartache marks the recorded debut of frontman Jones and drummer Justin Foley, both veterans of the Western Connecticut band Blood Has Been Shed. Fans have been looking forward to the first Killswitch album with Jones since 2002, when he took over for original singer Jesse Leach. "We wanted to make Howard feel as comfortable as possible," D’Antonio points out. "We just said, ‘You’ve been in the band for two years, so you know our style. Just do what you feel is right. Don’t write things for other people, write them for yourself.’ "

Jones’s performance stands out on the disc’s centerpiece, "The End of Heartache," which juxtaposes demonic riffs and sincere crooning. "Seek me (for comfort)/Call me (for solace)/I’ll be waiting (for the end of my broken heart)," he sings, building on the redemptive vibe that defined Leach’s work on Alive or Just Breathing. That track is one of D’Antonio’s personal favorites. "It’s cool that Howard was able to sing on top of it because underneath, it’s a pretty brutal song. Melody on top just adds to the dimension. I finished the cover art [two outstretched hands holding a heart with nails sticking out of it] on OzzFest, so there was something for him to draw from to write lyrics. As soon as he started that one, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s going to fit great with the cover. Let’s try to figure out what the album should be called and then groove it around that song.’ It definitely tied the whole thing together."

D’Antonio’s willingness to use the word "emo" without any negative connotations is one of the keys to Killswitch’s appeal. There’s no doubting the band’s thrash chops on Heartache, but it’s their pop inclinations that allow them to bridge the gap between Metallica and Thursday, with none of the grunge dreariness that afflicted the bulk of 1990s metal. "A Bid Farewell" kicks the disc off with Iron Maiden–style guitar harmonies and a firm resolution: "I will bid farewell to all lies." Old friend Leach stops by to share a chorus with Jones on the stampeding "Take This Oath"; "When Darkness Falls" (which first appeared on Roadrunner’s Freddy Vs. Jason soundtrack) evokes Slayer before settling into a lush refrain.

Despite all their fleet-fingered influences, Killswitch value heaviness and melody over virtuosity: they can do intricate death-metal rhythms, but guitar solos aren’t really their thing. Still, one-time Berklee students Dutkiewicz and Stroetzel pull out all the stops on "World Ablaze," which hinges on a host of haphazard tempo shifts and a lurching riff that could have come from the Helmet playbook. That track fades into "And Embers Rise," the kind of dreamy twin-guitar instrumental the band have made their specialty. On the closing "Hope Is . . . " Jones sings, "This is our moment, will you stand with me?/Hope is not lost." Coming from a man who helped bring real metal back to the pop mainstream, those are fitting words of self-empowerment.

WHEN MIKE D’ANTONIO acknowledges Killswitch’s debt to "Swedish metal," he’s talking about bands like In Flames, who have spent the past 10 years staying true to the genre’s melodic roots — just when it seemed no one else would. The new Soundtrack to Your Escape is their sixth album on Nuclear Blast, a German label that is on the move in the US market. In the wake of recent hits by two other Eurometal visionaries, Dimmu Borgir and Meshuggah, the imprint just scored its highest Billboard debut (#145) to date with Soundtrack. There’s a model for that kind of worldwide expansion: Roadrunner, which started off as a Dutch specialty label in the 1980s, is now home not only to Killswitch but also to multi-platinum rockers Nickelback and Slipknot.

As the leading proponents of the Göteborg sound, which strives to reconcile death metal with the relative accessibility of its distant Iron Maiden past, In Flames have always carried a hint of crossover potential. On 2002’s Reroute to Remain, they took a subtle step toward the mainstream by enlisting the studio help of electronics wiz Orjan Ornkloo, from industrial-metal cult faves Misery Loves Co. Ornkloo’s synthesizer is at the forefront on "The Quiet Place," the Soundtrack cut that’s most eligible for mass consumption. "Spinning further, deeper/I know you’re out to try me/I’m not in this to be a slave," sings frontman Anders Friden at the outset, his persecution complex and his deranged howl owing more to Korn and Marilyn Manson than long-time fans would probably like to admit. Still, his goth side has always been compelling, and the song’s loopy melodies make for sophisticated thrash.

Commercial aspirations aside, In Flames prove they can still do evil on the opening "F(r)iend," which finds Friden at his guttural finest. "Filth runs in every new day," he screams over the disc’s blackest riffs. The band overcome more silly word games on "In Search for I" ("The I is lost in me"), this time with one of their trademark high-speed guitar orgies. "Evil in a Closet" uses Black Sabbath’s "Planet Caravan" as the basis for a stirring love song; "Superhero of the Computer Rage" finds the appropriate prog backdrop for its sci-fi satire. Purists may wonder what happened to the relentless chug of their previous albums, but diversity suits In Flames well.

Killswitch Engage and In Flames perform this Friday, May 28, at the Palladium, 261 Main Street in Worcester; call (508) 797-9696.