Jesse Leach

Jesse Leach — born in the United States in 1978 — is Killswitch Engage's vocalist across two periods, and the author of the voice and lyrics that gave the band its identity. He sang on Alive or Just Breathing (2002), the record that established the vocabulary of American metalcore: the alternation between torn vocals and melodic chorus, lyrics of introspective and social content rather than generic aggression. He left soon afterwards, amid vocal health problems and depression, and the band went on for a decade with Howard Jones. His return in 2012 is what makes his path unusual. He came back to the same position eleven years later, with the band already established in the American mainstream, and recorded Disarm the Descent (2013), Incarnate (2016), Atonement (2019) and This Consequence (2025) — more records in the second spell than in the first. His lyrics are the element that sets Killswitch Engage apart in the genre. Leach writes about mental health, grief and recovery with direct frankness, and has spoken publicly about his own depression and anxiety — a stance which, in a circuit historically averse to that kind of exposure, had a real effect on how the subject came to be treated in metal.