KILLSWITCH ENGAGE | TOUR 2020
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE ANNOUNCE LIGHT THE TORCH AS OPENING ACT FOR HEADLINE SPRING 2020 TOUR AUGUST BURNS RED SERVE AS MAIN SUPPORT. BAND RECEIVES THIRD GRAMMY NOMINATION OF THEIR CAREER FOR "UNLEASHED" FROM NEW ALBUM ATONEMENT — OUT NOW
Gold-selling hard rock heavyweights Killswitch Engage have announced that Light the Torch will serve as the opening act on their upcoming Spring 2020 headline tour. As fans are more than well aware, Light the Torch features front-man Howard Jones, who served as KsE's singer from 2002 through 2012.
“We are excited to bring out Light the Torch, first of all, because they are a killer band. Obviously, having Howard out with us allows us to make this a tour to remember. I’ve always respected Howard as a singer, but in recent years, he’s become a friend. So it means more to me now than it would have in the past. We are happy to see him back up on the good foot and singing his heart out again in top form. With both August Burns Red and Light the Torch, there will be no punches pulled. Just a killer lineup. Fans won’t want to miss this tour. You will want to come early and stay late. All hails”
Killswitch Engage, recently recognized by Forbes as "one of modern metal's most cherished acts," will return to the road to headline clubs and theaters across the U.S. and Canada. The trek kicks off on March 10 in Cleveland and runs through April 12 in Boston. Lancaster, Pennsylvania's own August Burns Red will serve as main support for all of the dates. Tickets are on sale here.
Light the Torch
“We are truly excited to be a part of the Atonement Tour with KsE and ABR. This one has it all — old friends, new music, good times. Forget the world for a night and come hang out with three bands that want to make memories with you!”
August Burns Red
ABR singer Jake Luhrs echoes the sentiment, saying,
“We can’t wait to rip through North America with Killswitch Engage and Light the Torch! This tour has been in the making for a long time and I can’t wait to hit the road and show everyone what we’ve been working on. If you’re a metal fan, you’re not going to want to miss this one.”
In other Killswitch Engage news, the band just received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for their single "Unleashed," the lead track on their 2019 album Atonement. This marks the third Grammy nomination in the band's career.
Atonement is out now via Metal Blade Records. All Music described the album as "the best-sounding record in the band's catalog, bridging modern studio techniques with early-2000s ones," while Consequence of Sound praised the band for continuing to "deliver brutal compositions that hook listeners in with thrilling musicianship." Loudwire deemed the record a "high mark in the Killswitch Engage catalog and easily the metalcore icons' most dynamic release yet." MetalSucks summed it up best, saying, "There's a reason Killswitch Engage have survived when many of their peers tripped over their ear gauges and fell by the wayside. They're just really damn good at what they do," while Exclaim! enthused that Atonement is full of “material so killer that nobody could ever doubt them."
Listen to "Unleashed" here.
Watch the video for "I Am Broken Too" here.
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE ON TOUR:
WITH AUGUST BURNS RED + LIGHT THE TORCH:
3/10 — Cleveland, OH — Agora Theatre
3/11 — Grand Rapids, MI — 20 Monroe Live
3/13 — Philadelphia, PA — Franklin Music Hall
3/14 — Silver Spring, MD — Fillmore
3/15 — Raleigh, NC — Ritz
3/17 — Atlanta, GA — Tabernacle
3/18 — Orlando, FL — House of Blues
3/20 — Dallas, TX — Southside Ballroom
3/21 — Houston, TX — House of Blues
3/23 — Tempe, AZ — The Marquee
3/24 — Los Angeles — The Wiltern
3/25 — Riverside, CA — Municipal Auditorium
3/26 — San Francisco, CA — Warfield
3/28 — Seattle, WA — Showbox Sodo
3/29 — Boise, ID — Revolution
3/31 — Salt Lake City, UT — Complex
4/1 — Denver, CO — Fillmore
4/3 — Minneapolis, MN — Fillmore
4/4 — Chicago, IL — Radius
4/5 — Detroit, MI — Fillmore
4/6 — Toronto, ON — Rebel
4/8 — Montreal, QC — MTelus
4/10 — Portland, ME — State Theatre
4/11 — New York, NY — Terminal 5
4/12 — Boston, MA — House of Blues
ABOUT KILLSWITCH ENGAGE:
Killswitch Engage first shook the structure of heavy music upon climbing out of snowy industrialized Western Massachusetts in 1999. A musical outlier, the band pioneered a union of thrashed-out European guitar pyrotechnics, East Coast hardcore spirit, on-stage hijinks, and enlightened lyricism that set the pace for what the turn-of-the-century deemed heavy. 2002's Alive Or Just Breathing became avowed as a definitive album, being named among "The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade" by Decibel and celebrated by everyone from Metal Hammer to Revolver. Not only did they bust open the floodgates for dozens to follow, but they also garnered two GRAMMY®Award nominations in the category of "Best Metal Performance" in 2005 and 2014, respectively, and gold certifications for The End of Heartache [2004] and As Daylight Dies [2006]. The group landed three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with Killswitch Engage [2009], Disarm The Descent [2013], and their career high best bow at #6 with Incarnate [2016]. The latter two releases would also both capture #1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. Their total streams have exceeded half-a-billion to date. Along the way, the band has shared stages with some of the biggest acts in the world and have sold out countless headline gigs in six continents across the globe.
2019 represents another turning point. The quintet—Adam Dutkiewicz [lead guitar], Joel Stroetzel [rhythm guitar], Mike D'Antonio [bass], Justin Foley [drums], and Jesse Leach [vocals]—sharpen every side of this signature sound on their eighth full-length and first for Metal Blade, Atonement. Their most critically acclaimed album in at least 15 years, Atonement debuted #2 on the Billboard Top Album chart, #13 on the Billboard Top 200, and once again #1 on both the Top Rock and Hard Rock Album charts. Needless to say, worldwide touring is on the agenda for the rest of 2019, 2020, and beyond.