Howard Jones is disappointed. When the singer for metalcore band Killswitch Engage sits down for a conversation with INKED, it’s easy to get the feeling he’d rather be chatting with Bass Fishing Monthly. We don’t take it personally. “Anytime I get the opportunity to fish you can count me in,” a scratchy-voiced Jones says while casting lures somewhere in Canada (he claims he has no idea where he actually is). “When I was a teenager I kind of drifted away from it, and then it sort of got sprung back into my life—and how unfortunate for those who sprung it back into my life,” he says with a laugh. “[Guitarist] Adam [Dutkiewicz] has gone with me a few times, but the rest of the band pretty much just get annoyed with me because that’s all I talk about.”

While Jones loves to talk bait and tackle, he’s far less interested in conversing about his tattoos and his band’s fifth full-length, Killswitch Engage; in fact, he sounds palpably pained when the subject of the band’s latest disc is broached. “I spent so much time on this album I don’t even know if I can talk about it,” he admits with a sigh before adding, “It was a difficult time, but hey, I did my best.”

Jones’s reaction seems largely due to the fact that for the first time in Killswitch’s decade-long career, the band brought in an outside coproducer in the form of Brendan O’Brien. The prominent producer, known for his work with mega-acts such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam, was a big Killswitch fan prior to working with the band. “Brendan likes metal, but he likes metal with melody—and that’s why he was into our band,” Jones says. “So he really wanted to push the melodic aspect.”

O’Brien’s appreciation didn’t mean that this tight-knit group—which also includes bassist Mike D’Antonio, guitarist Joel Stroetzel, and drummer Justin Foley—weren’t apprehensive about bringing someone into their circle. “When we first hooked up with [Brendan] he was saying stuff like, ‘I don’t like metal records—they’re too impersonal, and we need to make it sound warmer,’” D’Antonio explains from the bus during a rare day off, which the band’s non-fishing-obsessed members have spent at the Mall of America, in Minnesota. “It took a lot for us all to agree on Brendan because he was definitely talking about a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense in our world. We’re used to that really metallic, heavy, thick sound that needs to be tight and impersonal in order to make it sound less sloppy.”
In order to achieve the proper balance of melody and Killswitch-worthy aggression, the band decided to divide the production duties between O’Brien and Dutkiewicz, who had produced every other Killswitch album as well as albums for bands such as As I Lay Dying and Every Time I Die. “Adam is so involved in this band that it wouldn’t be a possibility to make a record without his hand in things,” D’Antonio says. “Adam took on at least 50 to 60 percent of the duties himself, and that’s our comfort zone right there.”

The result is Killswitch Engage, an album that is a definite departure for the seasoned metalcore act yet still retains the raw aggression that made them one of the most exciting acts in the genre. From the power (metalcore) ballad and first single, “Take Me Away,” to the old-school Metallica thrash vibe of “I Would Do Anything” and brutal breakdowns and melodic flourishes of the album’s first track, “Never Again,” Killswitch Engage is unquestionably the band’s most varied effort to date. “The only thing we consciously tried to do was push ourselves to not sound like every other album we’ve done,” Jones says when asked what the catalyst was for the band’s sonic shift.

D’Antonio shares the feeling, adding that while he’s proud of all of KsE’s releases, the parallels between the band’s last two albums—2004’s slick The End Of Heartache and 2006’s return to form, As Daylight Dies—were at least partially responsible for why they felt the need to step outside of their comfort zone. “There were a lot of similarities between our last two records,” he says. “We didn’t intend for that to occur, but when you’re comfortable in the studio, sometimes things like that can happen—and then when you look back at it you’re like, ‘Oh, whoa, okay.’ But I think this [album] is definitely a departure.”

Once the members of Killswitch decided it was time to push their sound in a new direction, they felt liberated. “I think we’re all about pushing envelopes, and I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do right now musically,” D’Antonio says. “We’re constantly pushing and pulling and we’re our own worst enemies. I think we’re all really critical about what we do,” he elaborates, adding that this tension was exacerbated by the fact that vocals for the album weren’t added until the music was already completed. “Everyone felt really solid about the instruments, but the vocals weren’t close to being done before we left the studio, so it was sort of like a ‘wait and see, let’s hope for the best’ kind of thing,” says D’Antonio. “And when we finally got the rough tracks from Brendan with Howard’s vocals we were pretty stoked.”

Jones says the biggest lyrical inspiration on this album was the fact that he didn’t listen to anything while he was conceptualizing his vocals. “While we were recording and writing I didn’t listen to a single note of outside music, so I’m out of touch,” he responds with a laugh when asked about the current metal scene. “Ask me that in six months and I’ll be able to answer it correctly.” To date, Jones hasn’t even heard a finished version of Killswitch Engage, nor does it seem like he has interest in hearing it anytime soon. “I haven’t listened to crap,” he elaborates, adding that he doesn’t even own a copy of any of the band’s previous recordings. “I lived [this album] for so long that I’m over it,” he explains. “I just want Adam to get out of the back of the bus where he’s mixing it so I can watch fishing programs.”