Jesse Leach says his voice is at its best at 48, crediting his 2018 vocal surgery, Melissa Cross and a quieter lifestyle.
Jesse Leach says the operation that once threatened to end his singing career has left him in the strongest shape of his life. The Killswitch Engage frontman told JJ Tartaglia of “This Day In Metal” that eight years on from the vocal cord surgery he underwent while the band were tracking Atonement, he no longer walks onstage carrying any fear about whether his voice will hold.
Leach credited vocal coach Melissa Cross, who created the instructional video series The Zen Of Screaming, alongside the surgery itself and a wholesale change in how he lives on the road.
Asked how his voice has been holding up on the band’s current run of dates, Leach answered (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“Amazing. Thank you, [vocal coach] Melissa Cross, [creator of the instructional video series] The Zen Of Screaming. She saved my life. Having that surgery in 2018 changed everything, and I’ve just learned so much technique and then also just changing my lifestyle and rest. I sleep a lot. On days off, I’m pretty quiet. I don’t rage as much as I used to. I used to be a party animal. And it’s also nice to go on stage and not have to worry about it. I used to always have it in the back of my mind, like, ‘Oh, is this show gonna suck? Am I gonna go out of key?’ Now it’s more just about enjoying the moment and being present and exchanging that energy with the audience, which is liberating. And I’m actually having way more fun at 48 than I did in my 20s. I feel like I’m more in shape, I’m happier and my voice is, I think, at its best now, finally. I finally figured it out after 30 fricking years doing this. I’m decent now.”
The procedure came after Leach developed a polyp on his vocal cords, an injury he attributed at the time to overuse. Killswitch Engage pulled a run of late April and early May 2018 dates so he could have it removed, and the surgery took place on 30 April 2018 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Leach was in the middle of recording vocals for Atonement when the problem became impossible to work around.
That album eventually arrived on 16 August 2019 through Metal Blade in the United States and Sony Music elsewhere, and featured guest turns from former Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones and Testament frontman Chuck Billy. Leach announced his intention to work with Cross on rebuilding his technique within days of the operation, and has pointed to that partnership repeatedly since.
Killswitch Engage, Leach, guitarists Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel, bassist Mike D’Antonio and drummer Justin Foley, have been working through a staggered 2026 touring schedule rather than one continuous run.
The U.S. headline leg with Machine Head, Iron Reagan and Havok ran from 3 June in Detroit to 27 June in San Francisco, taking in Milwaukee Metal Fest and the Washington, D.C. edition of Warped Tour. A Canadian headline run followed from 5 to 16 August, with Machine Head and Malevolence in support and stops at Rock La Cauze and the Burt Block Party.
A further U.S. leg begins next month with Machine Head, Rivers Of Nihil and Judiciary:
- Sep 19 – Jacobs Pavilion, Cleveland, OH
- Sep 20 – Louder Than Life, Louisville, KY
- Sep 21 – The Rust Belt, Moline, IL
- Sep 23 – Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO
- Sep 24 – Union, Salt Lake City, UT
- Sep 25 – Kettlehouse Amphitheater, Missoula, MT
- Sep 27 – Gesa Pavilion, Spokane, WA
- Sep 28 – Roseland, Portland, OR
- Sep 29 – Temple Theatre, Tacoma, WA
The run extends into the opening days of October and includes a slot at Aftershock.
This Consequence, released 21 February 2025 via Metal Blade and produced by Dutkiewicz, is the band’s ninth studio album and Leach‘s sixth since he returned to the lineup in 2012. The record put Killswitch Engage on the covers of Revolver and Outburn, and produced the band’s first top-ten entry on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart when “I Believe” peaked at number four.
The album was introduced by “Forever Aligned” in November 2024, followed by “I Believe” that January. Videos for “Collusion” and “Aftermath” arrived across the rest of 2025. Before the 2026 dates, the band spent the summer of 2025 on the “Summer Of Loud” package, co-headlining with Beartooth, I Prevail and Parkway Drive.
