Jesse Leach - Killswitch Engage 'I Want To Instil Hope In People's Hearts'

Massachusetts metal lords Killswitch Engage will release their new album, This Consequence, on February 21st. Wall Of Sound caught up with frontman Jesse Leach to talk about their first new record in six years and he revealed some interesting musical influences that shaped his perspective. He described the album as “passionate soul metal” and his passion for the new material is clear when he talks about new songs. 

The album covers a varied range of metal influences that stretch Killswitch into different directions. There’s some real death metal stuff happening on a few songs. There's a bit more thrash on ‘The Fall of Us’. ‘Discordant Nation’ is a little bit more hardcore. I asked Leach how he prepares for a broad range of riffs: 

"It just came out of me, man. Honestly, it's part of the process. I'm inspired by what I'm hearing and then I jot down ideas and then it starts to take shape. So a lot of it, majority of it is inspired by what I'm hearing. So those guys delivered a diverse batch of songs and I love it. I love a lot of the thrash and hardcore and death metal. I love that stuff because to me, it's like at this stage in the game, we've been a band for so long, bands tend to slow down. We want to do the opposite."

Leach continued by explaining the external influences on his lyrics: 

"With this record, we really turned it up and I think it's necessary because of where we are in the world right now. Aggression is palatable, frustration, anger, I want to say post covid world we're living in. There is a real bubbling undercurrent of frustration and anger that I just tapped into. That's what it was, was observation and then sort of self-reflection stuff that I'd sort of been, I guess suppressing really. And then when it came time to, what do I have to say, I really tapped into that anger and frustration. So it goes along with the sounds that were given to me. So it just sort of happened naturally." 

Leach’s suggestion that the post-pandemic world has shaped societies anger and frustration is noticeable on one of the album’s standout tracks - the powerful ‘Aftermath’. I asked him what impact he thought the song will have on fans:

“That we're all in this together. We all went through something and you could apply that song to our relationship. You can apply it to a country in wartime rebuilding from the ashes. It's happening all over the world. It's a common theme I think we could all relate to, but the Pandemic was a global event, so unfortunately it served very much so, to divide a lot of people in very ugly ways.

But I'm seeing it as something now that we're recovering [from], moving through our global PTSD together, it should serve as something to unify us. We have so much more in common as a human race than we do differences.

And for me, it's all about separation from that divisiveness that's used as a means to control and keep people at each other's throats so that way the powers that be can sort of pull the strings on us and do what they want to do and get away with it so distracted."

Whilst Killswitch Engage aren’t an overtly political band, Leach’s perspective is shaped by his hardcore roots, and a belief that people can make a difference when they work together: 

"So to me, it's really about that message of wake up, realise the power that we have, the commonalities we have, and maybe we, I don't know, work together a little bit to make the world a better place, like crazy ideas. So that's kind of where I'm coming from, just to this righteous anger that has a mark. I'm aiming for people's hearts. I'm aiming for people's compassion to ignite that within them, to realise that the power's in our hands, it's really just on us right now. We are the majority, the common people are the majority of this world, and we can make very big drastic changes for the better if we want to."

Leach’s optimism that people can make a difference is all over the lyrics of This Consequence, particularly the second single, ‘I Believe’. It’s become a critical part of the band’s mantra since Leach rejoined and he revealed some unusual influences on the song’s message: 

"Well, it was the one message I wanted to get across more than anything was just you can't lose faith. You can't lose hope. The power that we have in our minds when we manifest things, when we say things are going to be okay, I had certain artists echoing in my head, I think of early U2 Joshua Tree era. ‘The Streets Have No Name’, ‘With or Without You’. That soulful, beautiful U2 that was still very much connected to the people. I think before they sort of hit a bit of a disconnect in their career and became rock stars, if you will. And then I think of Bob Marley: 'Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing's going to be alright.' A message like that. I was like, 'that's what I want to deliver.' I want to instil hope in people's hearts, and I want them to hear somebody tell them it's going to be alright. 

Jesse got visibly excited as he continued to describe how his musical upbringing has shaped the man he’s become: 

“I think that comes from my roots in hardcore and punk. It was the first music that spoke to me when I talk to people about music, it's like you listen to what you were sort of raised with to a certain point or what your older brother or your older sister listens to, and then there's a point in your life when you sort of own your own music. You're like, this is me. I identify with this. And that was hardcore music. And a lot of those bands I listened to growing up were positive message. It was all about the Bad Brains, positive mental attitude, PMA, you had Sick Of It All with a lot of self empowerment and anti-establishment, anti mainstream society, and you just felt like there was a belonging there. So to me, it's not just music... And especially for me, I'm a child of hardcore, so I can't help but put that message in there, what I feel in the deepest depths in my soul. It's this aggressive positivity."

Being a Bob Marley fan myself, I couldn’t help but engage in this particular influence, which seems pretty left field but makes perfect sense when he explains its similarities to hardcore: 

"Well, Bob Marley, I think has its impact. You can see it blatantly. I mean, even in Max Cavalera, he talks about Bob, that Rasta thing, Bad Brains, it's found its way into the culture. New York hardcore, or even British punk, you had Don Letz who was the DJ. So if you went to go see Billy Idol in the early years with his band Generation X, or if you went to see the Sex Pistols or early versions of The Clash, you had Don Letz this guy behind the controls playing reggae music. So that reggae music is really tied in from the early punk rock in the seventies, and then it made its way into hardcore. So to me, even in the nineties here in the States, if you were into hardcore, you were probably into hip hop too. It was street music, and that's what I was raised on.

So to me, it was all about music done by the people, for the people. And reggae music is exactly that. It stands on its own for some people. It's a really spiritual, religious thing. So there's a fervour. There's a really powerful message that people would live and die for. I'm super attracted to that sort of fervour because, aside from the sort of spiritual aspect of Rastafari, the messages on the whole were about unification. They were about embracing love and compassion and having even into what you eat or how you speak. The I tell diet, the changing of the lingo. All that to me spoke to me because it was just so unique. Just like nineties hip hop, just like nineties hardcore, it kind of all just meshed together. And that's just what I was seeing. I was raised with it. I would go to radio shows, I would go to see a hip hop show, I would go to a hardcore show. It was something I was doing on a weekly basis in the mid nineties."

With a new album and tour about to kick off, Leach shared which songs he hopes fans will embrace as part of the setlists: 

"I think when you test out certain songs and the plan is to sort of come to the forefront with five or six ready to go, that will sort of mix in and out of the set. But it's going to be a conscious effort to put much more new material than we usually do on an album cycle, because this album just feels like it needs, it feels like it's sort of turning over a new leaf, a new chapter for us. If I were to venture a guess, I would say ‘Aftermath’ is a no brainer. That will definitely be on the set. I think [first single] ‘Forever Aligned’ based on the response we've already had. I believe we'll be one of those ‘I'm Broken Too’/ ‘Always’ kind of songs, I think. And then for me personally, I would love to include ‘Broken Glass’. It's short, it's crazy, it's different. ‘Discordant Nation’ would be one I'd really like to put in there as well. But again, we might test the waters and see how the audience reacts.

If there's a really positive reaction, people singing along and really digging on it, that's kind of when we know we've got something we've got to keep in the set for a while. So I'm curious to see how that pans out. And also just stoked to play new material. 

Leach also revealed he’d like to return to Australia for a Killswitch Engage headline tour but it won’t be until 2026, shared his thoughts on their 2024 tour with Iron Maiden (and their headliner pub gigs) and why he feels the term “metalcore” is overused. 

Check out the full interview below.

This Consequence is out February 21, 2025 via Metal Blade Records. Pre Order here. 

Interview by KJ Draven (Instagram & Threads)