Lead vocalist Jesse Leach has proudly announced the completion of lyric writing for the new KILLSWITCH ENGAGE album, the highly-anticipated successor to 2019’s “Atonement”
Sharing the exciting news about the status of the new KILLSWITCH ENGAGE album via his social media this past Monday (January 22), the 45-year-old Leach, residing in Woodstock, New York with his fiancée Corinne Paris, known as Philia Porphyra, posted: “Lyric writing for the past year and a half! As of the 20th all lyrics have been finalized and completed.
“I still have a few more things to take care of vocally in the coming weeks before I can say it’s finalized.
“This was the single most difficult and rewarding process of my career,” he continued. “I grew a lot as a writer and as a human during all of it.
“Everyone is different when it comes to their work or their art. Sometimes it’s seemingly effortless and other times it is stifling and frustrating.
“If I’ve learned anything it is that persistence, discipline and passion go hand in hand with humility and transition,” Jesse added. “It’s learning how to let go of an idea even after you’ve spent weeks on it. Working day after day hammering away, re-structuring, losing sleep having the melodies haunt your wakeful nights. Then finally accepting it isn’t the correct fit. Then allowing it to be destroyed or set aside. That or… Hearing a song, having to pull over on the side of the road to write a line down and hum a melody into my phone. Turing around heading home to write and demo it, track it with in a 3 hour period.
“I feel a sense of accomplishment and relief. I feel exhausted and elated. I am eager to finish tracking after the @shiprocked cruise. Until then I will be working as much as possible of the remaining ‘hand written lyric orders.’
“Thanks again for all of your patience everyone!”
In a talk with TotalRock last September, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the new KILLSWITCH ENGAGE album. He said: “We’re still at demo stages, but we have quite a bit of demos. And Jesse‘s been writing and rewriting and going back to the little chopping block. We decided to have everybody in the band become a part of the lyric writing too. So Jesse will bring ideas. We say, ‘We like this. We don’t like this. This is the idea. Carry on with that.’”
Asked how the process of making a KILLSWITCH ENGAGE has evolved over the years, Adam said: “In the past, I took a lot of it on my shoulders, to handle a lot of the duties. But I think the last record, in particular, everyone was just — they felt like a bit detached almost, because I was doing almost everything on my own. And I think they’re just, like, ‘We don’t even feel like we made a record.’ So they wanna be more of a part of the production process and the writing process. So I’ve made sure to keep everybody looped in and in the same circle. Communication’s key to anything.”
He continued: “I do my best to try to make something that we’re kind of proud of. So, at the end of the day, it’s up to me to make sure that everybody in the band is happy and we’re all going in the same direction.”
Touching on the musical direction of the new KILLSWITCH ENGAGE album, Adam said: “We’re still doing what we do. We’re just trying to push the boundaries and shake it up a little bit and make it not the same thing we’ve been doing for 20-something years.”
“Atonement” made its debut in August 2019 through Metal Blade Records in the United States and via Sony Music Entertainment in all other parts of the globe. This exceptional album featured notable guest appearances by the former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Howard Jones and the frontman of TESTAMENT, Chuck Billy. The release marked the band’s third full-length album since the return of Jesse Leach, who rejoined the group in 2012.