Mike D'Antonio

Mike D'Antonio — born in the United States in 1973 — is Killswitch Engage's founding bassist and the only member present throughout the band's history. He came from Overcast, a 1990s Massachusetts band that helped form the vocabulary of what would come to be called metalcore — the fusion of hardcore structure with the riff of Swedish melodic death metal. Killswitch Engage was born in 1999 out of musicians from that scene, and D'Antonio is the direct link to that origin. His function in the repertoire is to hold the foundation beneath a format that constantly changes character: heavy syncopated riffs and open melodic choruses. The bass has to articulate the syncopation together with the drums in the heavy passages and sustain clean harmony in the choruses — two distinct regimes within the same track. He is also a graphic designer, and signs the band's visual identity: covers, logos and tour material. Few metal musicians combine the instrumental function with authorship of their own group's image, and that gave Killswitch Engage a visual coherence maintained through every change of singer.