Killswitch Engage have discussed writing one of their biggest hits – and the turmoil behind the scenes that led to one member leaving the band for a decade.
In an interview with Metal Hammer dissecting Killswitch’s biggest songs, frontman Jesse Leach and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz admit that their memories of putting My Last Serenade together are a little hazy, but the issues Leach was experiencing as the song blew up had a profound impact on him – and the band’s future.
“My memories of writing Last Serenade are none because it was so long ago!” laughs Dutkiewicz. “I think that song was a collaboration. I can’t even remember who wrote all the riffs! I’m pretty sure Joel [Stroetzel, Killswitch rhythm guitarist] did the bridge, that’s all I can remember.”
“I remember coming up with the initial melody for the chorus,” offers Leach, “but it wasn’t quite there and Adam helped me bring it up to snuff.
“But what I thought was cool about it was, it was aggressive vocals and then the bridge was kinda more yelled, so it was three different styles of vocals. It was very much just Adam helping me figure that stuff out, for sure.”
Released in 2002 to promote the band’s second album Alive Or Just Breathing, My Last Serenade exposed Killswitch Engage to a far bigger audience that they’d been accustomed to up until that point. The added pressure that exposure brought, alongside a full-on, international touring schedule, began to take its toll on Leach.
“That record was awful for Adam and I,” he admits. “For me, I just didn’t have the mental wherewithal. First of all, life on the road was really tough for me, and I wasn’t handling my voice. I didn’t know how to preserve my voice, so that just spiralled me into a really dark place.”
Not long after the release of Alive Or Just Breathing and weeks before Killswitch Engage were set to embark on a European tour, Jesse Leach left the band. He was replaced by Howard Jones, who fronted the Massachusetts five-piece for ten years and three studio albums, before Jones himself would depart Killswitch in 2012. In a surprising twist of fate, Leach would rejoin the band following Jones’ exit, and has remained their singer since.
“Seeing the band blow up after I left, I was happy for them, and actually relieved because I just wasn’t in the right headspace,” Leach says now. “I look back on it and I don’t even recognise that person, but we all go through our challenges and our difficulties for a reason. It’s just amazing that it came full circle.
“If I could go back in time and smack the shit outta younger me I definitely would, but I needed a more gentle hand back then and I didn’t know how to ask for help,” he adds. “That was the beginning, for me, of realising that I had some issues I had to deal with. So I can’t regret it. It helped.”
Watch the full interview with Killswitch below. Their latest album This Consequence is out now.
