Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage believes metal has a ‘therapeutic’ effect on people.
“I think a lot of us can relate to frustration, anger, betrayal, all those things, and that’s kind of what I highlighted lyrically with this album,” the frontman said on the Talk Toomey podcast about the band’s new album ‘This Consequence.’ “I was really focusing on that stuff.”
Leach continued, “[It’s] anger that wants to sort of wake people up and have people choose their own path instead of just the blind leading the blind, which is what we see so much in society and our governments and organised religion and all these things that control us as people.”
“It’s very much about breaking out of the matrix, if you will and carving your own path. And there’s a righteous anger underneath all of it, and that’s where the positivity lies. But I think with metal music, the great thing about it is you can talk about dark stuff and it is therapeutic. That’s why a lot of us get into this kind of music,” the singer revealed.
Jesse isn’t the only artist who thinks metal has a therapeutic side. Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo also told Metal Hammer earlier this year, “I think to a lot of people from the outside, it just looks like it’s one note.”
He added, “It’s very angry; it’s loud; it’s this really violent expression of people screaming, yelling, and turning their amps as loud as they can or whatever. But while for some people it is incredibly angry and violent, for some people it’s really therapeutic.”
“It can be almost calming, in a way, of hearing somebody else letting that expression out that you’re feeling. I think that’s one of the things that can be pretty misconstrued,” Shomo also noted.
Killswitch Engaged announced ‘This Consequence’ last month and released the lead single, ‘Forever Aligned,’ on November 20. ‘This Consequence’ will be Killswitch’s first studio album in six years, after 2019’s ‘Atonement.’
