A couple weeks ago, the Alrosa Villa received one of the year’s most anticipated tours on the heavy metal realm: the Killswitch Engage’s “Alive or Just Breathing” 10 year anniversary.

This album was very important on the genre as it pretty much set the tone for a new spin-off that was being cooked throughout the late 90’s: Metalcore.

This fusion genre is a combination of Metal and Hardcore Punk, two different yet alike genres in which scenes started to “crossover” here and there, and only a couple of bands were able to materialize properly the breakdowns, riffs, and even chants and solos belonging to both the parent genres. KSE landed on the melodic side of the spectrum, and tons of bands from east to west were influenced by this release.

Therefore, it was no surprise people went nuts when KSE announced that they were doing this tour playing the whole album every night in smaller venues AND with the beloved original vocalist Jesse Leach, who just reunited with them.

Because of all this, the tour had that epic back-to-the-roots “reunion” nostalgic feel and Columbus OH was no exception! I’ve never seen Alrosa as packed as that night.

The tour support bands were Shadows Fall and Acaro, both being long time friends of KSE and all hailing from Massachusetts. Trivia: At one point, some members from all 3 bands were in the 90’s band called Overcast. Unfortunately, there were not local opening acts.

Acaro opened up the show with original songs that contained traditional arrangements within the genre. They warmed up the crowd very well and at one point the vocalist jokingly said to the crowd that they know fans came to see Killswitch and were probably wondering who Acaro was, but thanking them for their respect and for listening to their set.

Next was Shadows Fall, who played a very emotional set for all the band members, as they were really close friends with Dimebag Darrell (almost exactly 8 years ago he was shot at this same venue). Lead vocalist Brian Fair (who told us he has been growing his dreadlocks for over 21 years!) dedicated pretty much all their set to Dimebag’s memory, with some Crown Royal included, a crazy spin-stage dive and windmill head-banging that made one of his dreadlocks get stuck on a light! Towards the end of their set they covered Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates” as a tribute to Dimebag. The crowd was definitely pleased.

At this point of the show drinks have already been passed around, and some people started to not be able to mosh properly… adding to this, the floors at Alrosa are very slippery, so you can imagine how that ended up. Something is definitely due for a remodel.

Killswitch. Killswitch, Killswitch… they have come so far since the times when Jesse was lead singer and they were being discovered. He left in 2002 for personal & health reasons and pursued other music endeavors like Seemless, The Empire Shall Fall and more recently Times of Grace (alongside bandmate Adam D). Columbus OH native Howard Jones took over and added his trademark deep baritone voice to the mix.

10 years later Jesse is back, but now he has some serious shoes to fill. KSE went to stardom without him, so it’s definitely not the same band he was in a decade ago. Nobody can come and say “I can replace Howard Jones” without backing that statement with legit talent. So the expectations were definitely very high.

So as soon as the introduction to “A Bid Farewell” started, all eyes and ears were on him, and he delivered! It’s not exactly the same, but it’s not intended to be. Jesse has his own style and it sounded like the best cover somebody can ever do. The same happened with “Rose of Sharyn”. And like I mentioned before, it’s not everybody that can come and sing like Howard! He did a great job.

The “Alive and Just Breathing” set started with Numbered Days and went on with favorites like Self Revolution, Fixation on the Darkness, Life to Lifeless and the one that has the chorus that give the name to the album,  Just Barely Breathing.

Listening to Jesse singing his own songs is just priceless, his melodic voice contains deep emotion and you can tell he means every single line of his full-of-passion lyrics.

Priceless as well is watching the crowd singing and chanting the songs at the point where they, we, were as loud as the speakers. One of the highest points was on My Last Serenade, where all Alrosa almost went voiceless trying to harmonize to these lines: “This is my last serenade / I feel you as you fall away. This is my last serenade / From yourself you can’t run away…”

Then we had To the Sons of Man, Temple From the Within,Vide Infra and a fantastic interpretation of the classic The Element of One, another crowd pleaser and high point of the show. They ended their set with Rise Inside.

Of course people wanted more, and they got two more songs; My Curse and The End of Heartache, songs that ended up convincing us that Jesse can indeed fill Howard’s shoes, and left us wanting more and expecting a great new album in 2013.

Before their songs were in movie soundtracks and big festival stages were the norm, the show that Columbus got that night was like riding the Tardis back in time and experience something that otherwise would have been impossible.