What happens when you stick one of the world’s biggest mainstream metal bands in a small club, down a guitar player (to a family emergency) and have them play for a bunch of aggro hardcore fans? Well, if it’s Killswitch Engage, they bring out the very heaviest of their material, invite the crowd to get go as crazy with the moshing and stage diving as they want to and proceed to win the whole place over with a set full of passion and brutality.

Watch Kilswitch Engage’s full This Is Hardcore set from Philadelphia’s legendary Electric Factory here below.

It’s not as big a stretch as one might initially think, actually. Killswitch are, after all, one of the pioneering bands of metalcore. They were among the first bands of the new wave of American heavy metal to meld hardcore to metal and foster its crossover into the metal mainstream. And, while the band is more widely known for its more consumer friendly radio metal from the years when Howard Jones was their frontman, the return of original singer Jesse Leach has heralded somewhat of a return to their more hardcore roots.

Leach’s first return offering with the band, 2013’s Disarm The Descent was a stellar return to form that I placed in the top slot of my year end “best of” list. I can not wait to see these guys again when Knotfest takes over San Bernadino in October. Expect a full report right here.

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