Killswitch Engage Prepping AC/DC Cover

Posted on Jun 23rd 2009 2:00PM by Chris Harris Comments

If you haven't heard Killswitch Engage's hilariously brutal cover of Dio's "Holy Diver" yet, you need to. Like all good covers, the band's version is fairly faithful, but not a carbon copy. Killswitch puts its own stamp on the tune, without completely bastardizing the classic tune, seemingly about a mean but clean tiger. We think.

On this summer's RockStar Energy Mayhem Festival, Killswitch Engage plan to whip out their Dio cover from time to time, inserting it into their potent set whenever it feels like everyone in the joint -- Killswitch fan or otherwise -- could use a little something they'll all recognize. But the band revealed to Noisecreep recently that it's cooking up another well-known cover, which they may debut for Mayhem audiences this summer.

"We're not sure yet," says guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, "but we're working on an AC/DC cover, we just need more time. And bottle rockets." According to frontman Howard Jones, taking on AC/DC is not easy, "because a greater band has done all of their songs complete justice."

But Dutkiewicz says he's keen on covering 1981's "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)," and of course, he plans on putting a distinctly Killswitch Engage take on the track.

"Instead of cannons, we're going to fire bottle rockets," Dutkiewicz explains, before demonstrating what he means. "Like, 'For those about to rock...zip, pop. We salute you. For those about to rock, fire...zip zip, pop pop...We salute you."

While its doubtful you should expect the band to be ready to rock and salute you come Mayhem time, you can count on Killswitch Engage never following in Mastodon and Mötley Crüe's footsteps, by playing an entire album's worth of material, from front to back, on tour.

"We would never play an entire album on tour," Jones offers, before saying he wouldn't mind seeing Faith No More tour "Angel Dust." "We'd bore people to tears," said Jones.

"People want to hear the hits, the don't want to hear the misses," says Dutkiewicz. "And trust me, there's a bunch of swings and misses on those albums. I would love to see Sigur Ros do the parenthesis record, though. That would be bad a--."

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