YOUR FIRST TASTE OF TIMES OF GRACE

Times of Grace, the project from current Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz (someday I’ll learn to spell that name without having to look it up or resort to calling him “Adam D.”) and former Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach, have released their first song unto the world. It’s called “Strength in Numbers,” and is available as a free download here, assuming you’re willing to subscribe to Times of Grace’s e-mail list. It will only be available for free for 48 hours; on October 19 it becomes available via various digital retailers.

My first thoughts about the track? Gee, it sounds an awful lot like KsE. (I’d even go so far as to say that the militaristic drums kinda remind me of “Life to Lifeless,” one of my favorite tracks from Killswitch Engage’s modern classic Alive or Just Breathing.) That’s not a shock given the guys involved, except that earlier this year Leach told me that the music “pulls from metal/rock/ambient shoe gaze type stuff, as well as punk and blues,” and there ain’t no ambient shoe gaze, punk, or blues to be heard here. But it’s just one song from the album, so obviously we can’t judge just yet.

And besides, people who have been yearning for Leach to return to Killswitch should be overjoyed. It’s not hard to listen to this and imagine an alternate world in which Leach never left the band. And Leach’s vocals certainly sound great, and Dutkiewicz plays a pretty killer guitar solo, which is something I always wished he’d do more of in KsE.

Go here to get the song, then weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section. Times of Grace’s full-length debut, The Hymn of a Broken Man, comes out via Roadrunner on January 18.

-AR