KILLSWITCH ENGAGE | MACHINE HEAD| MALEVOLENCE

THE SETUP…

London, Ontario, Canada has seen a dramatic uptick in killer metal shows over the last few years. Most of the larger tours hit the city’s preeminent music venues, such as the London Music Hall and Canada Life Place. Tonight, we made the trek a few blocks northeast to Centennial Hall, which sits right at the doorstep of London’s historic Victoria Park, smack dab in the downtown core. The venue opened on June 21, 1967, built as a municipal project to celebrate Canada’s 100th anniversary of Confederation with an inaugural performance by the London Symphony Orchestra. Over the years, it has evolved into a staple stop for touring rock legends, comedians, and community gatherings, maintaining its place as one of the city’s primary mid-sized entertainment venues. In fact, the venue was a major stop for classic hard rock and metal pioneers (hosting legendary gigs by Black Sabbath in 1971 and KISS and Rush in the mid-1970s). Tonight, its hallowed halls welcomed three titans of metal: Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, and the UK’s Malevolence. Could these dusty, (possibly) asbestos-laced walls handle such intensity? Read on to find out!

MALEVOLENCE

Have you ever been smashed in the face with a ten ton hammer? Yeah, me neither. I probably wouldn’t be here typing this if that had been the case. Let me rephrase this: have you ever been smashed in the face with a ten ton hammer forged in the fires of hardcore/beatdown/thrash/groove/sludge/death metal? Well, tonight, the UK’s Malevolence swung that hammer mercilessly and pulverized every face with a performance that would be hard to beat. I was actually a little worried for both Machine Head and Killswitch Engage after witnessing this unbelievably heavy and energetic set. That worry was all for naught, as Malevolence turned out to be the perfect set-up band to the co-headliners.

I must admit, I had no clue coming into this show who these guys were. Upon entering the main room, I was greeted with the band’s logo projected onto the back wall of the stage behind their gear. It’s an ambiguous logo, scrawled in the styling of your average 90s death metal band with an added touch of graffiti/streetwear and hardcore chicano/Old English-like lettering. Was this band going to be a Floridian-like death metal attack, or were they going to unleash a brutal beatdown of the hardcore variety? To my pleasant surprise, it was a bit of both… and more. The death metal comes in the form of some truly crushing breakdowns influenced by Arise-era Sepultura (think the breakdown in the middle of ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’) and the chugging groove of Obituary. The hardcore elements pay homage to bands such as Hatebreed, Terror, and Biohazard (think half-time breakdowns, gang vocals, and a pit-focused ethos). Throw in the best parts of Pantera, Lamb Of God, and Slayer, and wrap it all up with some southern metal & NOLA sludge à la Crowbar, Down, and Black Label Society, and you’ve got yourself Malevolence.

Where this band truly shines, though, is their ability to get bodies moving. Everywhere you looked there was violent two-stepping, circle pits, and wall-to-wall crowd movement from the first riff to the last. Frontman Alex Taylor is an expert at controlling the crowd, demanding constant energy, commanding circle pits, and connecting directly with fans at the barricade without taking himself too seriously. Where Alex is the master of ceremonies from the hardcore/metal angle, guitarist Konan Hall is the southern soul, delivering a rich, throat-shredding, soulful clean-and-shout bark. The duo’s transitions between total aggression and heavy melody is truly something to behold.

I went into this performance a noob… I am now a fan. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and I can’t wait to dig into their back catalogue. Get yourself some Malevolence if you already haven’t. You will not be disappointed. I can guarantee you that!

SETLIST
‘Trenches’, ‘Life Sentence’, ‘Self Supremacy’, ‘Keep Your Distance’, ‘On Broken Glass’, ‘If It’s All The Same To You’

MACHINE HEAD

For us old-school thrash heads, Machine Head are a bit, um, confusing. On the one hand, you’ve got yourself ragers such as their debut album, Burn My Eyes. On the other hand, well, you’ve got 1999’s The Burning Red, which saw frontman Robb Flynn donning an Adidas tracksuit and blonde-tipped spikey hair playing jumpdafukup songs. Yeah, I get it. It was the sign of the times. Weird times. For those who have followed Robb prior to forming Machine Head, you’ll know he was the absolute driving force of one of the Bay Area’s best thrash bands, Vio-Lence. The Machine Head of today is a far cry from those nu-metal-leaning days, with Robb looking, acting, and sounding more the part of his former thrash-ified self.

Tonight, the boys delivered a set that steered clear of those nu-metal/jumpdafukup days. Instead, they focused on songs such as ‘Davidian’, ‘Imperium’, ‘Bønescraper’, and ‘Chøke Øn The Ashes Øf Yøur Hate’, which represent Machine Head at their absolute heaviest. The only outlier was ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ (released as a standalone single in 2016), which was the closest in style to the turn-of-the-millennium alternative metal feel. It was surprising to me that Machine Head only delivered eight songs total, compared to the eighteen that Killswitch Engage belted out. It was my understanding that this was a co-headlining tour, which, to me, means that both bands should have gotten roughly the same amount of stage time. Odd. This certainly didn’t deter Robb and the fellas, as they were absolutely on fire, burning both eyes and ears with a performance that would put to shame bands half their age.

It’s truly amazing to see bands such as Machine Head still pummeling audiences thirty-plus years later. Who would have thought all the way back in ’94 that we would still be throwing horns and headbanging to these songs in 2026? If tonight’s reception was any indication, this band has cultivated a devout, cult-like fanbase. The room-shaking singalongs make it absolutely clear that Machine Head fans are among the most dedicated and loyal fans in metal.

SETLIST
‘Imperium’, ‘Chøke Øn The Ashes Øf Yøur Hate’, ‘Game Over’, ‘Øutsider’, ‘Locust’, ‘Bønescraper’, ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’, ‘Davidian’

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

Adam D. and his boys of brutality know their way around a stage. With nearly thirty years of wearing down floorboards on stages across the world, they’ve perfected the art of the performance to a degree that is truly unrivalled. Their mix of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal riffing (à la In Flames), heavy palm-muted breakdowns, and soaring clean vocal choruses that play in yer noggin on repeat is what has allowed this band to become a multi-generational draw. A quick glance around the sea of bodies was proof in the punishing pudding: a slew of fans who discovered the band in their teens during the early 2000s metalcore boom are now in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and are now bringing their own children to the shows. This is a beautiful thing, and the band certainly play to this fact, as their show is a mix of adrenaline-fueled extremity with a light-hearted, almost goofy, touch. This silliness is mostly relegated to guitarist Adam D., who uses the stage as his personal playground with exaggerated high-kicks, crab-walks, pirouettes, and mock-serious aerobic exercise routines.

Not since Iron Maiden have I seen fans belt out every single word to every single song with such passion and unbridled fury (which must surely give frontman Jesse Leach goosebumps). This was most prevalent on the choruses of hit songs such as ‘My Curse,’ ‘The End Of Heartache,’ and, of course, ‘My Last Serenade’. Hell, Jesse didn’t even need to be up there, as the audibility of the fans literally drowned him out. Impressive. Just as we saw from Adam D., Jesse ain’t no slouch either: when the moment called for it, he lunged himself into the pit and crowd surfed with wireless mic in hand, never missing a beat. The interplay between Jesse and Adam is pure magic, with Jesse acting as the grounded, passionate straight man to Adam’s wild instigator/bad boy persona. One minute, Jesse is belting out a passionate, heartfelt lyric, while behind him Adam is breaking the tension with goofy, Jim Carey-like facial expressions.

I must admit, I’m not really an active listener of these guys, as my tastes are of the more extreme variety, but I gotta give respect where respect is absolutely due. Killswitch Engage are an absolute monster of a live band. Even if you aren’t familiar with their music, I can guarantee you that you’ll come out of their show with a surge of adrenaline flowing through your amped-up veins and a massive, well-earned smile on your face. Do not miss these guys the next time they steamroll their way into your town. You’ll thank me later.

SETLIST
‘Fixation On The Darkness’, ‘This Is Absolution’, ‘The End Of Heartache’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘A Bid Farewell’, ‘In Due Time’, ‘To The Sons Of Man’, ‘Unleashed’, ‘Hate By Design’, ‘Where It Dies’, ‘Forever Aligned’, ‘The Signal Fire’, ‘I Believe’, ‘Daylight Dies’, ‘Rose Of Sharyn’, ‘This Fire’, ‘My Curse’, ‘My Last Serenade’