LIVE REVIEW: Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, Fit For An Autopsy, Decapitated, OVO Arena Wembley, 18/10/2025
Photo Credit: Abbi Draper
You could feel that dense, pre-show static that hums through a moderately full arena when everyone knows what’s about to happen before the lights even dimmed in Wembley Arena. Then Baba O’Riley hit over the speakers, The Who’s synth loop echoing across faces pressed shoulder-to-shoulder, and Killswitch Engage tore into frame. That moment didn’t just open the set, it set intention. This wasn’t another nostalgia run. It was ceremony.
Decapitated were first through the gate; clinical precision, riffs sharpened to the point of danger cut through the early crowd as an urgent reminder that technical brutality still commands attention. They didn’t need volume tricks; the riffs and tight attack did the talking. Material from Cancer Culture landed heavy, Vogg’s right-hand rhythm alone could have levelled the room. 7/10
Fit For An Autopsy carried that energy straight into your chest cavity. Their set had that strange mix of brute force and emotional weight you could feel it more than hear it. When they stopped mid-song to help a fan down in the pit, it was a reminder that this community still looks after its own. Humanity through distortion. 8/10
Then came Hatebreed, pure combustion. Jamey Jasta has crowd control down to a science; the pits responded like muscle memory. I Will Be Heard, Destroy Everything, Looking Down the Barrel of Today each drop timed perfectly, with chaos and choreography with wrecking-ball intent. It felt less like watching a band and more like witnessing someone conduct aggression into something healing. 9/10
By the time Killswitch stepped out, the room was already alive. Opening with Strength of the Mind, the transition from recording to reality was seamless. Jesse Leach owned every inch of space one minute clawing at his chest, the next on the cusp of the stage with a grin that said ‘this is where I belong’. Adam D was equal parts comic relief and guitar hero all chaos and charisma, yet his precision never faltered.
What’s striking about this tour is the blend of new songs nestled between the cornerstones. Tracks from This Consequence hit as hard as My Curse or Rose of Sharyn, proving this band’s heartbeat hasn’t aged out. The production was stripped to function: light when it needed to flare, shadow when it didn’t. The final stretch, The End of Heartache sliding into My Last Serenade wasn’t just a sing-along, it was an exorcism. The collective noise of hundreds of voices hitting those choruses felt like air after a storm. 9/10
Killswitch Engage have entered that rare phase where they’re both legacy and present tense. The set didn’t lean on history; it breathed because of it. Every lyric hit with a sense of muscle memory familiar, but somehow still vital.
There’s something deeply human in how this bill was built, each band a different translation of catharsis. Decapitated’s precision, FFAA’s weight, Hatebreed’s discipline, KSE’s light. All orbiting the same gravity; release.
What could’ve been a greatest-hits victory lap became something closer to communion. This tour feels designed to remind you why live music still matters, why we show up, and let it all fall out under the same lights. In London, Killswitch Engage didn’t just headline they held space. For noise, for emotion, for the kind of connection that only exists between feedback and silence.
