Will KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Embark On Special Tour In 2024 To Celebrate 20th Anniversary Of 'The End Of Heartache'?

In a new interview with Heavy New York, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE bassist Mike D'Antonio was asked about the possibility of him and his bandmates embarking on a special tour next year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough third album, 2004's "The End Of Heartache". He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It really hasn't been brought up. It'll probably be brought up now. The unfortunate and weird thing is you've just gotta take into account that that's not [current KILLSWITCH ENGAGE singer] Jesse's [Leach] record. He likes that record a lot, but it's not him singing on it. So do we wanna force him into a situation where he's doing stuff that maybe he's a little less than excited about or just not as invested in. We play a lot of the hits from different records that [former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE singer] Howard [Jones] did, but we want Jesse to be happy too. So that would be a discussion to see how we could go about doing something like that."

Back in 2019, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE guitarist and producer Adam Dutkiewicz told Kerrang! magazine that he wasn't interested in doing anything to celebrate the 15th anniversary of "The End Of Heartache". "It's kind of just a flash in the band, and then we move on for the next thing," Adam said. "We're in the middle of trying to set up the new record. It's funny, our bassist, Mike, was, like, 'Hey, should we be thinking about doing a 15th-anniversary tour for this record?' and I was, like, 'No. We should be thinking about this new record.' We shouldn't live in the past, y'know? I feel like there's been too much of that recently. Maybe more people should focus on writing more material, and not just trying to rehash stuff, y'know? There's just too much of that.

"I'm happy that everyone agreed with me that it wasn't a good idea," he continued, "especially because we literally just finished our new record. So we have things to worry about."

"The End Of Heartache" was the band's first release to feature Jones and drummer Justin Foley.

The disc's title track was nominated in the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 47th annual Grammy Awards.

The album was certified gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) in December 2007 for sales in excess of a half million copies in the United States.

Leach appeared on KILLSWITCH's self-titled debut and sophomore album, "Alive Or Just Breathing", before exiting the band. Jones took over on vocals for "The End Of Heartache", "As Daylight Dies" and the 2009 self-titled set before being dismissed from the group 11 years ago.

On June 9, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE was joined by ANTHRAX singer Joey Belladonna and Jones during KILLSWITCH's concert at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in Hampton, New Hampshire. Belladonna came up on stage to perform a cover of DIO's "Holy Diver", while Jones shared lead vocals with Leach on the song "The Signal Fire", which originally appeared on KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's latest album, 2019's "Atonement".

When the music video for the studio version of "The Signal Fire" was first released in August 2019, Leach said that he wrote the song's lyrics "with Howard in mind and our connection through our similar mental illnesses." He explained: "I mean, now that I've hung with this guy a few times, it's 'crazy' (pun intended) how similar we are. We are brothers in metal, anxiety, hardcore music, love of medicinal marijuana and fighting depression.

"We may be very different-sounding voices, but, in truth, we are similar in many ways in our minds," he added.

Jesse went on to say that the song's lyrics are "about keeping hope in dark times and helping out those in need."

Leach, who has previously blamed his exit from KILLSWITCH in 2002 on his battle with depression, said that he planned "on using this song to help continue to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention. Both Howard and I have a very strong outspoken stance on the subject and I will use this to help with the cause," he said.