Killswitch Engage, ‘The New Awakening’ (SONG STREAM)

Time for a wake up call, administered by Massachusetts metal mainstays Killswitch Engage. The band has dropped the brand new song, "The New Awakening," from their upcoming Disarm the Descent album, out April 2 via longtime label Roadrunner.

The album is the first to feature original vocalist Jesse Leach since 2002's Alive or Just Breathing, which was a watershed moment for the New Wave of American Heavy Metal that dominated the early half of the '00s.

The song is a real barnburner, with Leach barking, "I'd rather die than live my life in fear," before guitarists Adam D. and Joel Stroetzel launch into an epic, Herculean breakdown that should cause some of the most fierce moshpits to erupt at KsE shows.

There's a robust, communal chat of "I WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR" before a massive solo, and it's a rallying cry for fans of thought-provoking American metal with lots and lots of galloping melodies.

It sounds like the KsE you knew and loved from over a decade ago, but it's not stuck in the quicksand of the past, either. It's vintage and current KsE, in the space of one song.