In a recent interview with Joshua Toomey on the Talk Toomey podcast, Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach delved into the band’s highly anticipated ninth studio album, “This Consequence,” set to release on February 21, 2025, via Metal Blade. This marks their sixth album with Leach since his return in 2012.
Described by Toomey as “dark,” “angry,” and “aggressive,” Leach wholeheartedly agreed with this characterization. “Yeah, I think angry, dark and aggressive, for better or for worse, is kind of what the world needs right now, I think, therapeutically speaking,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
“I think a lot of us can relate to frustration, anger, betrayal, all those things, and that’s kind of what I highlighted lyrically with this album; I was really focusing on that stuff. But I will say this: if you really read into the lyrics, there’s a positivity through righteous anger, anger that wants to sort of wake people up and have people choose their own path instead of just the blind leading the blind, which is what we see so much in society and our governments and organized religion and all these things that control us as people. It’s very much about breaking out of the matrix if you will, and carving your own path. And there’s a righteous anger underneath all of it, and that’s where the positivity lies. But I think with metal music, the great thing about it is you can talk about dark stuff and it is therapeutic. That’s why a lot of us get into this kind of music,” Leach added.
Leach also discussed the inspiration behind “This Consequence”’s first single, “Forever Aligned,” released last month. Specifically addressing the lyric, “now my tongue must confess,” Leach explained: “Yeah, I’m always weaving in and out… I was raised by a minister, I was raised in a Christian home, so even though I don’t subscribe to organized religion anymore, I like using biblical words here and there to sort of tie in the themes. I’m very much a believer in God, if you will, in general. I know people roll their eyes when other people say that, but my journey has been such where I’ve just seen much deeper things that I don’t think can be defined by a particular human organized religion.”
“And ‘Forever Aligned’ is about that. It’s about love. It’s about, first and foremost, the song was inspired by the love I have for my wife and the relationship we were able to have during the pandemic, especially, when it was just the two of us, nobody else, and really learning what love and sacrifice is, and then weaving that into what I believe God is. God is love, to keep it really general for people to understand. We can try to tap into that as humans, that word ‘love’, but it’s far beyond human comprehension. So that song is very much about being broken and in a dark place and finding salvation through love,” he explained.
Reflecting on his growth as a vocalist since the release of “Atonement” in 2019, Leach admitted the creative process behind “This Consequence” was grueling. “Truth be told, [‘This Consequence’] was very difficult for me to write and sort of find my inspiration again. And even vocally, learning new techniques, like the vocal fry, and trying to add that into my old technique and still sound like me, it was a long, hard process.”
Leach elaborated on the challenges he faced following vocal surgery in 2018. “Especially after my vocal surgery in 2018, I relearned how to speak differently — I speak differently than I did. I’m more measured; I make sure my voice is placed in the right place. And through that, it went into my vocals, my singing, especially. I was really focusing on my singing first and foremost to stay in key and not go flat or sharp. Then it was, like, my screams were — I was so paranoid. I was really worried about… We do three shows in a row. That fourth show, I’m, like, ‘It’s getting difficult. I can feel the swelling happening.’ So I was really studying vocal fry, ‘cause you can do a lot of cool stuff with fry, but me with my voice, it has such a signature sound to it, I guess, according to Adam [Dutkiewicz, Killswitch Engage guitarist and producer], at least, that if I just went into that new technique completely, the lows were missing something, my yelling. It’s different. So I was going into these demos just doing fry, saving my voice, especially thinking that, once I get to the studio, it’s going to be fatiguing; we’re doing four- or five-hour sessions. But I kept falling flat and the voice just didn’t sound right,” Leach elaborated.
“For some of the high stuff, it works, but for the lower, mid stuff, and for the death metal growls, that’s all old school… It’s the old-school way, the way we all started doing it in the late ’80s and early ‘90s. So I’ve learned, thankfully, through a lot of trial and error, and this album had a lot to do with it, to blend the styles. So I can do my old-school stuff, and then I can sort of blend in some of the vocal fry to hit those crazy, maniacal-sounding highs without it destroying my voice.”
When “This Consequence” was first announced in late November, Leach issued a heartfelt statement: “‘This Consequence,’ to me, is the combination of everything the past five years has thrown at us as a band, as humans, and society as a whole. This album is just as much about everybody and their stories, as it is for me about my journey personally. Sonically, I love the combination of everybody’s ideas and contributions on this album. It feels more like a collaboration than the past few records have been. When all is said and done, I wouldn’t change anything about this album.”
He added, “I think it’s the exact record we needed to make. I’m honored and proud of what we all were able to create and refine through this music and message.”
