Sometimes, a band needs to shake things up to stimulate themselves and their fans, all the while retaining the signature sonic hallmarks that have defined their sound. For their fifth album, Killswitch Engage, Massachusetts pioneers Killswitch Engage took calculated risks and traversed a different route, going outside their comfort zones. The choice yielded impressive, incredible results. None of the changes, however, make the mighty KsE sound like anyone else but KsE. After bursting onto the scene in 2002 with the genre-defining Alive or Just Breathing, notching a Grammy nomination in 2005 for the title track from 2004's Gold-certified The End of Heartache and following up that landmark album with the near-Gold As Daylight Dies and an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, KsE adopted a versatile, non-stop touring schedule. The band's road history includes two treks on Ozzfest, stints on Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos and having the rare ability to straddle the line between the metal and alternative scenes by touring with Slayer and Mastodon as easily as My Chemical Romance and Underoath. However, KsE elected not to coast on the wave of prior successes, which saw them become one of the premier, most successful bands to emerge from the so-called New Wave of American metal. The band opted to work with an outside producer for the first time in their career. Brendan O'Brien (AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots) was dispatched with the task, which saw the band record in locales other than their native Massachusetts. As for the impact KsE have left on the current hard rock scene, Jones and the band are modest, humble even, about their role. Jones says, "It's completely unexpected and in a lot of ways, not that much has changed about the band except we're not in a van anymore. It's still the same lunkheaded guys who get on stage and make fun of each other. Nothing has really changed, except we have a few more people who like us and we're lucky." While the band chalks it up to luck, talent and the crafting of good music that speaks to the fans also factor into the mix with Killswitch Engage and their new self-titled release.