Like Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage play firebreathing metalcore with trad leanings and an impressive pedigree (both bands are descended from defunct Massachusetts hardcore heavyweights Overcast). KSE eschew the over-the-top guitar heroism of their 413 homies, but otherwise their mosh MO is the same: thrash rhythms and hardcore vocals tempered with a healthy dose of melody.

On the band’s second album and Roadrunner debut, said melodies occasionally push them closer to the P.O.D. mainstream than to the In Flames underground. Metalheads of all stripes will get their horns up for "My Last Serenade," an acoustic-laced power ballad that grinds as hard as Pantera’s "Cemetery Gates." Frontman Jesse David Leach has a pretty croon to match his feral scream, and his lyrics convey a brand of positivism that bespeaks a nod in the direction of Rasta without getting too Bad Brains about it. Guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz’s epic metal production emphasizes the band’s stellar guitar and vocal harmonies without softening the impact of their vintage thrash gallop. The most ambitious effort is "Rise Inside," which accelerates into a spine-tingling power-metal chorus and then thumps off into the sunset, ending the disc and establishing Killswitch Engage as one of New England metal’s most exciting new voices.

(Killswitch Engage open for Hypocrisy and Soilwork this Friday, May 24, at the Palladium in Worcester. Call 508-797-9696.)