Killswitch Engage parted ways with vocalist Jesse Leach in 2002 and hired then-Blood Has Been Shed vocalist Howard Jones shortly after. The band would go on to release the metalcore classic The End Of Heartache in 2004, and would eventually part ways with Jones in 2012. Leach rejoined and here we are today… but things could've been a little different.
According to Bleeding Through vocalist Brandan Schieppati in an interview with the Meep Meep Podcast, both he and Eighteen Visions vocalist James Hart were asked to join the band before Jones. Both Schieppati and Hart recommended Jones for the position, with Schieppati adding that he wasn't interested in leaving Bleeding Through at the time.
"That is a true story. I was in Arkansas with Bleeding Through, Norma Jean, and Every Time I Die – the first Bleeding Through tour we ever did… I just kinda knew that Bleeding Through was my shit. I knew I was gonna leave Eighteen Visions and just do Bleeding Through and I remember their A&R guy hits me up and goes 'hey, you know the band wants you to try out for Killswitch' and at the time… Killswitch was an unknown. They weren't really poppin' off yet. Bleeding Through actually was probably bigger than them at that time… They actually asked James from Eighteen Visions too. But we both recommended Howard and there you go."
Jones not joining Killswitch Engage would have very likely rewritten metalcore history. Because without Howard Jones, would The End Of Heartache have been what it was?
