TIMES OF GRACE

A nearly broken man repairs himself with the help of an old friend

Spending two weeks hospitalized and immobile in 2007 left Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz plenty of time to think. Rather than dwell on his current circumstances (surgery for a severe back injury he suffered while on tour in England), Dutkiewicz started composing what became The Hymn of a Broken Man, the debut album by his side project with former Killswitch singer Jesse Leach. “Out of necessity, to keep my sanity, I started drumming up musical ideas while I was lying in a hospital bed,” Dutkiewicz says. That was nearly four years ago—so what took so long? “We wanted to handle this with kid gloves because of how sensitive a situation it is,” Dutkiewicz says. “Like, ‘Adam is putting a record out, why isn’t it a Killswitch record? Is he leaving Killswitch? What about Killswitch?’”

The answer to all those questions was simple. “I wrote most of these songs from a hospital bed, and the foundations of what the songs are lyrically stem from me and where I was at that point,” Dutkiewicz explains. “I’ve never done an entire record of music like that before, and that’s not how Killswitch writes their music. We do it collectively. We all bring ideas to the table. This just felt like something different from the beginning.”

Although Leach left Killswitch Engage in 2002 after repeatedly straining his voice, he and Dutkiewicz remained friends. The two still worked well together, although it wasn’t exactly like old times. “There was definitely some of that old chemistry, but at the same time, it was actually much easier now because of Jesse growing up and learning how to sing,” Dutkiewicz says. “Back when he was in Killswitch Engage he was still learning himself as a vocalist, which is one of the main reasons why he left: He couldn’t handle the pressure of being on the road and taking care of his throat.” The songs originated during a grim time in Dutkiewicz’s life and evolved through a handful of personal crises he and Leach dealt with over the intervening three years. The resulting album is even darker than the pair expected—but in a good way. “It is a cathartic thing, it makes us feel better by letting all the bad stuff out,” Dutkiewicz says. “At the same time, it’s mostly a positive spin on how you have to remain hopeful and turn things around when things get weird.”

–Eric R. Danton