心痛终点 (2004)

The End of Heartache is the third studio album by the American metalcore band Killswitch Engage. It was released on May 11, 2004, through Roadrunner Records. It is the first album to feature lead vocalist Howard Jones and drummer Justin Foley.

Three single were released for the album "The End of Heartache", "Rose of Sharyn" and "A Bid Farewell." The album was the band’s first to reach the Billboard 200, selling 38,000 copies in its first week of release peaking at number 21. A special edition of the album was released in 2005 that contained six additional tracks

The album combines melodic elements with screamo, progressive metal, thrash metal and extreme metal to create "the perfect" melodic metalcore work, according to MetalSucks.

Upon release It received positive reviews from critics, and helped boost the band’s mainstream appeal. The End of Heartache won album of the year at the 2004 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. The title track was also nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards. It has since been ranked among the best metalcore / metal albums by publications such as Loudwire and Metal Hammer.

Background

In 2002 Killswitch Engage released their second album Alive or Just Breathing. However missing his wife whom he had married two weeks prior to the tour, the bands original singer Jesse Leach left Killswitch Engage in the middle of their first national tour. Killswitch Engage very quickly set up auditions to fill the vocalist position in the band and eventually settled on Howard Jones, who was at the time the frontman of Blood Has Been Shed. Jones very quickly had to learn a set of songs to tour with the band. The End of Heartache marked a major turning point in the bands career, as it was the bands first album to not feature Leach, Jones had fronted the band as their lead vocalist for two years at this point but the album marked his recording debut with the group. The album also marked the debut of drummer Justin Foley who was bandmates with Jones in Blood Has Been Shed. Jones brought Foley into the band after Tom Gomes left in October 2003.

In an interview with Kerrang guitarist and producer Adam Dutkiewicz commented on this time period stating:

It was a strange time to us, because it was Howard’s first record, so I felt like we needed to have something to prove on here, Just before, we had Alive Or Just Breathing, which was the record where people started noticing us and who we were, and we started growing as a band. Then, all of the sudden, we had a new singer, which is a very weird thing. So as I was producing it, I was thinking about how it needs to be better than what we just did, that it needs to be the next big thing, and not a step back.

Composition

The album was produced by the band’s guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, who played a key part in shaping their sound. Killswitch Engage officially began writing for the album in late 2003 early 2004 following the Headbangers Ball tour with Lamb of God and Shadows fall. Unlike their previous effort Dutkiewicz attempted to be more planned out during the recording process resulting in the band doing a lot of pre production. One song was recorded with a different amplifier due to the previous one blowing up in studio.

With this album the band aimed to refine their blend of aggressive metalcore with more melodic and accessible songwriting, which helped them break through to a wider audience. With Howard Jones’ mix of harsh screams and powerful clean singing expanded the band’s sonic range. Dutkiewicz pushed the band to be perfectionist, in a 2018 interview Joel Stroetzel stated "The End of Heartache was a whole different thing. We’d double every guitar, and everything had to be perfectly in tune." in a separate interview he added "he came down pretty hard on all of us, I had a couple of nights when we kept having to do a part over and over again and I was just like, What are you talking about that take was awesome."

Jones’ lyrical approach introduced a more introspective and emotionally resonant tone than previous records, which helped broaden the band’s appeal and emotional range. former singer Jesse Leach provided additional vocals on the songs "Take This Oath" and "Irreversal". Jones admitted that he was extremely nervous while making the album and the comparisons that would be made between him and Leach. Throughout the writing process Jones initially had trouble coming up with lyrics, however Dutkiewicz noted that any melody or arrangement idea he gave him Jones would fit it perfectly.