Jesse Leach and Howard Jones doing KSE’s “My Last Serenade” as part of the Roadrunner United event in December 2005

So last night Killswitch Engage sent out a press release announcing they’re going to finish their current tour with All That Remains’ Phil LaBonte handling vocal duties for Howard Jones, who had to break out early, apparently due to illness.

But that’s not really interesting news. What I actually found most intriguing about the press release was that it made no mention of the rumors that original KSE front dude Jesse Leach would be returning to the fold for the two NYC stops on the tour. It’s worth noting that Leach himself helped fan the flames of those rumors with an interaction on Facebook with MS Suckalo Chris Steeves. And just as intriguing as the absence of any mention of Leach in the press release is that he has removed the exchange with Steeves from his Facebook page (although you can still see it here).

So what does this mean? There are a few possibilities:

1. Leach is in no way, shape, or form doing anything with KSE for those New York shows, or any shows.
2. Leach is still doing either a partial or entire performance with the band, but they want to keep it a “surprise” and have no intention of announcing it beforehand.
3. Leach is still doing either a partial or entire performance with the band, but they’re not ready to make that announcement quite yet.

I’m going with #1 on this; given that the word about Leach is already out there, it makes no sense to try and surprise fans and/or make the announcement at a later date (unless perhaps there are contractual details that are still being ironed out). But it’s not like LaBonte is gonna do this entire tour and then just take a breather for the NYC gigs.

So if you don’t already have tickets to those NYC shows… well, don’t buy them expecting Leach to show up. ‘Cause you might wind up being very disappointed.

-AR