A crowd of metalheads bustled inside the Radius Chicago to see Killswitch Engage, in an attempt to escape the bitter cold. Upon entering the venue they would see what looked like a nightclub in a crime movie. Red LED lights illuminated the brutalist architecture as the merchandise line trailed off into oblivion. Few people realized that they were about to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The first band to play that night was Light The Torch, led by the former lead singer of Killswitch Engage, Howard Jones. From the beginning, the crowd was packed all the way up to the sound booth, anxiously waiting to see the band perform. Devil horns and crowd surfers flew into the sky throughout Light The Torch’s set as the crowd belted out the lyrics to the songs. Alex Rüdinger, one of the most talented drummers alive today, played a perfect show which was insane to witness live. Light The Torch played an even amount of songs off of their two previous records, Revival (2018) and You Will Be The Death Of Me (2021). As usual, the crowd went absolutely crazy for Howard Jones who has both an incredible singing voice and a screaming voice as Light The Torch finished their set with the song “Die Alone.”

August Burns Red played next and got the crowd really moving as they played hit songs off of Constellations, Guardians, Messengers, and other albums. Song after song, the band had the crowd jumping, moshing, and crowd surfing. Vocalist Jake Luhrs swung his microphone around the stage before catching it and dancing on the riser as the rest of the band played melodic riffs. A dazzling spectacle of laser beams and smoke cannons littered the sky as August Burns Red performed some of their heaviest breakdowns, the heaviest being “Bloodletter.” At least five crowd surfers were in the air at a time as they raced toward the stage during their Legend of Zelda cover. As their set was coming to a close, August Burns Red played “Marianas Trench,” “Constellations,” and “White Washed” hyped up the crowd for the final act of the night.

Killswitch Engage’s performance was everything you could have hoped for and more. They played six songs off of their most recent album Atonement, which features some of their strongest work to date. They also played the majority of their hit songs like “My Curse,” “This Fire,” “In Due Time,” and “My Last Serenade” along with a personal favorite “Reject Yourself.” The crowd was all in, belting the lyrics out with their hands in the sky. Armed with 7 string guitars and Kemper amp profilers, the guitarists ran around the stage, head banging and playing to the crowd. Guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz said hilarious things as usual to keep the set in a light mood. “Its great to be here in the City of Angels,” he yelled to a frustrated crowd. He began listing off other state’s mottos before landing on the Windy City because the crowd started to look furious. After a later song he thanked the Sunshine State which caused the crowd to chuckle. After the song “As Sure As The Sun Will Rise,” vocalist Jesse Leach said, “that last song was about hope and after these last few years we all know how important it is to…” “MASTURBATE,” yelled Adam as the crowd burst out in laughter. From there the show continued on smoothly until the very end where buckets of dopamine were injected into the brains of the crowd. It was pretty clear where the show would go from the beginning. Former vocalist of Killswitch Engage, Howard Jones opened the night with Light The Torch and it would be an incredible disservice to not have him come up on stage and sing a song. He sang three. Jesse announced that a friend was coming up to sing and he would take a quick break. Howard hopped on stage and the crowd went wild. Howard sang “Rose of Sharyn” alone with Killswitch Engage until Jesse reappeared and joined him for the last two songs “The End of Heartache” and “The Signal Fire.” It was a moment that I saw coming from a mile away and it still felt like a complete surprise. For years, the fans anxiously waited for that moment and after the cancelling and rescheduling of the tour, the moment finally happened. The two vocalists of Killswitch Engage sang the songs together in a beautiful moment of unity and friendship. Everyone was screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs and recording the moment so they could rewatch it later so they could remember how truly special that night was. It was one of the best, “you had to be there moments.” Hugs were exchanged on stage and the band said goodnight. As the crowd reluctantly shuffled toward the doors, the a cover song of AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” by Adam Dutkiewicz played over the speakers. Keeping things light as usual, the song was called “Go To Hell” and it was a song about how much Adam hates his neighbor.

Light The Torch