Of all the bands that have risen during this recent metal renaissance, Killswitch Engage is the biggest, which is to say it sells the most records and sells out the biggest concert venues. The band is able to tour with Slayer and Mastodon as easily as with My Chemical Romance and Underoath. Indeed, even non-metal fans care about what Killswitch Engage is doing.

When all is said and done, Killswitch Engage is one of the most beloved metal bands out there today.

It is also one of the most reluctant.

And perhaps, that is why the band is so successful.

The members of Killswitch Engage appear non-plussed by their success. They don't take it for granted, but they also don't walk around like their shit doesn't stink or like they need to have their rings kissed. It's refreshing that a heavy metal band that's achieved a remarkable degree of notoriety and success is able to be so damn down-to-earth. They don't chase fame; it chases them. And while Killswitch Engage is now a viable business for the band and its handlers, said handlers remain with their feet planted firmly on the ground. Rock stardom has not gone to the collective head of this western Massachusetts metal machine.

"There's no need to do that," laughs Jones, a stocky, handsome tank of a man with a desert-dry sense of humor. Jones is so dry, in fact, that you might mistake him for being stoic or standoffish. "You can do stuff, put out an album, and do OK. Then any number of things can happen the next time you put an album out. People can not care anymore, you know? This stuff is all very fleeting, so we just don't even think about it. It's cool if people have that aspiration, to be huge rockstars or to be 'the biggest band,' but few achieve it. For us? Hey, we just wrote some stuff that we liked and hoped people got a kick out of it. We don't think of ourselves as any sort of rockstars or anybody of any sort of notoriety. Honestly, it feels the same. Yes, things have progressed, and we have gone from a van to a bus and things of that nature, and that's cool, but we're still the same guys."

That's a rather nonchalant attitude to have, but it's what makes Killswitch Engage work. This is not a band that tries to please anyone. These guys don't offer that stock answer and say, "Oh, it's about pleasing ourselves first." They just get together and make some of the most refreshing (and unfortunately, most copied) metal out there today.

As Daylight Dies, the group's fourth album overall and third for Roadrunner Records, finds the band keeping things as brutal as possible. Songs like the title track are fierce enough to shift the earth's plates, and Jones is able to roar and croon with ease. Killswitch Engage's sound is a signature one, and "In the Arms of Sorrow" and "My Curse" are classic Killswitch, comprising squalling guitars, barked verses, and sung choruses.

"We didn't make the same album again," remarks Jones. "That's the best thing about it. Who wants to hear that same album over and over? I think [drummer] Justin [Foley] really shines. He brought some cool ideas to it, and that's for people to judge when they hear it."

Despite having had some degree of radio airplay on its last album, the band didn't try to churn out a bunch of hits this time out. The guys also resisted the tendency to get super experimental. They just did their thing, and as a result, As Daylight Dies is effortlessly good.

"Yeah, I'd say it's a little heavier. It definitely sounds like Killswitch," Jones agrees. "And some things are just distinguishable, like the big 'gay' choruses. We gotta have that."

It's this level of effortless goodness and self-deprecation that attracts the average metal fan to Killswitch Engage's lair. It's as though there's nothing forced about the band's songs or its style. One only need to witness the live shows, where the crowd often sings the lyrics louder than the band, and where guitarist (and producer) Adam Dutkiewicz runs around in capes, plastic butt cheeks smeared with ketchup attached to his person, and cavorts around in Daisy Dukes short-shorts, among other assorted comical get-ups.

"We never force ourselves down anyone's throat," Jones says. "If you are into it, then cool. But if not, that's OK, too. If you're not the biggest fan, our goal is to be entertaining and get the crowd involved and try to have as much fun. If you spend your hard-earned money on a show, you want to at least be entertained. I'm not going on stage acting super tough! None of that! Most bands do that, and the whole metal thing is all, 'Grrrrr! Let's look rowdy and have a mean persona.' Why would I do that when I sing some of the swishiest stuff ever?"

As for Dutkiewicz and his wacky stage antics and attire, anyone who gets the band gets the joke.

"What's there to get?" laughs Jones. "He's being goofy, and that's how he is on and off stage. He is just a personality, and it shines. It's nice, because I can just step back and not do as much socializing and talking. He does it for me."

Dutkiewicz and Jones are clearly the complementary yin and yang of Killswitch Engage, and they're the most visible figures in the band. Rounding out the group is bassist Mike D'Antonio, who cut his teeth in Overcast, a band who peaked in 1997 and whose influence has been showing up for years; guitarist Joel Stroetzel, whose parents' basement still serves as the group's practice space, and whose mom bakes cookies for the band; and drummer Justin Foley, whose nasty footwork in Blood Has Been Shed got him the Killswitch gig in 2003.

Jones are Dutkiewicz's Jekyll and Hyde dynamic is intensified by the fact that Dutkiewicz likes to consume libations, while Jones adheres to the straight edge lifestyle, one that is decidedly anti-rockstar. While the sXe scene faded out from the hardcore and underground metal spotlight after the break-ups of Earth Crisis and Strife, Jones sheds a little light on that scene and how being straight edge affects his band.

"I don't think it has petered out at all," he says. "Kids are discovering it every day, and there is always an influx of new kids who start. There are ebbs and flows. As for Adam, I tend to remember everything he does when he's blasted."

And although some people misconstrue Jones as standoffish, he's really not. "People who know me know that I can be downright silly, but I'm usually just busy working. And I tend to be a little harder to find after a show because I'm not huge on spotlight, even though this job thrusts you in it," he says.

The Killswitch machine is such a well-oiled instrument due to the imperfect chemistry among the band members. In most bands - not just Killswitch Engage - the push and pull often leads to the best music.

"We're just five individual guys with individual personalities, and the quirkiness helps," Jones says. "Whatever success we have, it's been part hard work and part right people backing us with management and record label and booking agent, and then pure dumb luck. That's why there's no need to get cocky or arrogant, because this can get pulled out from under you, and the next thing you know, no one cares about your band and everyone has moved on. We just want to be grateful, do our thing, and not dwell on it.

"When you get concerned about your image and what you sell, you get weary," he continues. "We're grateful, but it's one of those things. We try not to take ourselves too seriously because you never know what's going to happen. Anytime you're involved in the entertainment industry, trends and things change so quickly. This is really cool. We have had some good stuff happen, and try to enjoy it as best we can and not think too highly of ourselves."

That's OK, though. The members of Killswitch Engage don't need to think too highly of themselves: The metal community will do that for them.

Howard Jones' Other Job

Jones has a whole other career outside of Killswitch Engage and Blood Has Been Shed, and that's as a manager. His roster consists of a spate of hardcore and metalcore bands, including Bury Your Dead, Ocean's Firing, Life in Your Way, Since the Flood, Twelve Tribes, and August Burns Red, as well as Shadows Fall and Hatebreed producer Zeuss. Obviously, Jones maintains a consistently full plate.

How does he manage, especially since Killswitch Engage tours nonstop?

"Definitely through patience and making the right friends and networking with the right people," he says. "That has helped tremendously. And above all else, it's what you don't know - you have to learn. Don't pretend to know. Ask questions. I jumped into this feet first with no knowledge, and it turned into something."

Thanks to the miracle of technology - cell phones, wireless Internet - and a great assistant, Jones is able to do his management work from the road.

"That's why I sit on the bus all the time. It's me and my laptop and my phone. It gets time consuming! I keep busy," he laughs.

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