NEW KILLSWITCH ENGAGE ALBUM WON’T FEATURE ANYTHING WRITTEN BY HOWARD JONES

When Howard Jones parted ways with Killswitch Engage back in January, he revealed that at least part of the reason he was leaving the band was because “we’ve all been in writing mode but somehow I couldn’t get excited about the new album… my heart wasn’t in it.” That sounds like Jones at least wrote, or tried to write, some material for the new release, doesn’t it?

Well, apparently not! When asked during a recent interview if Jones had worked on the band’s new album at all, new-old vocalist Jesse Leach had this to say:

“Thankfully no, thankfully it was just music; it had no lyrics, no vocals — Howard hadn’t attempted to do anything—so it was a nice, clean slate. Brand new record, fresh, fast, heavy… I couldn’t be more stoked to sing on the record.

As a matter of fact, once I signed up to do the audition for those guys, we chummed around, had beers and they took me back to Adam’s house and we listened to the record and that totally sold me. When I heard the record, I was like, ‘I’ve gotta sing on this.’”

Of course, it’s possible that Jones did do some work on the release, but either a) that work never made it to the demo stage, or b) the band wisely chose not to play that work for Leach. One of some fans’ biggest complaints about the most recent KsE releases was that Jones’ melodies all sounded too similar; it seems like it’s in everyone’s best interest to just let Leach start fresh and do his own thing.

Leach also revealed that two songs have been completed for the new album, and that there are “another 12-13 to go that I’m gonna finish up in the fall.” That doesn’t sound like we’ll be getting a new Killswitch album this year — but I’m sure we can all agree that it’s better they take their time and put out something amazing again than rush things and just fall back on too many familiar old tropes.

-AR

[via The PRP]