Montrealโs JUNKOWL are releasing their new album โMaking Out With My Deathโ on June 5th and today weโre giving you their new single โQuarantine Us Allโ, a follow up to their recent video โCrawling Up My Feetโ, spiced up with special track by track rundown by vocalist Jesse Frechette, and his personal take on the album, their local scene in Montreal, and other artists worth your time.
For fans of Cancer Bats, Every Time I Die, AlexisOnFire, Gallows, Knocked Loose, Underoath
Formed in 2017, JUNKOWLโs unique blend of groove metal, stoner, and hardcore is matched with high energy โin your faceโ performances. A year earlier Jesse Frechette (vocals) met Dom Labrie (drums) and after a few jams they picked up Marco Larosa (guitar) and Samuel Matte (bass) and the rest is history. The writing process is a collaborative one, with melodies and vocals usually forming on the spot.
Moving through the underground music scene, Junkowl quickly made a name for themselves when they won the 2019 โEn Route Vers Heavy Montrealโ; a competition between nearly 200 bands, landing them a spot at that yearโs edition of renowned metal festival Heavy Montreal.
On June 5th, 2020, they will release their debut album, โMaking Out With My Deathโ, a 10 track record full of sultry and powerful songs about past regrets and self-destructive behaviour.
It includes the bandโs favourite โ10,000 Vulturesโ, the first song Junkowl ever wrote, which was completed after the first jam together. Almost all the lyrics were freestyle during that jam.
Comments vocalist Jesse Frechette:
Weโve been working on this record for about 2 years now and weโre really excited to see it come to life. Weโre always working on new material. The Coronavirus definitely slowed that process down but weโre all still writing on our own and sharing our ideaโs with each other. We had a few shows cancelled, and have no clue when weโll be able to do our album release party, but weโre all trying to stay positive.
๐โ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ค ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, โ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐ , ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ก๐ฆ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ , ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ก-๐ค๐๐๐๐โ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐กโ๐๐๐, c๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐.
Most of my lyrics are about past regrets or self-destructive behaviour. Kind of indulging in negative thoughts and emotions. A lot of them were written while I was wasted. I like to think that the next album will have a much different lyrical theme but hey, old habits die hard.
With no sign of slowing down, Junkowl has more tunes in the works and pouring passion into their live performances and newly recorded tunes. Stay tuned for party animal blues; fat spliffs and heavy riffs.
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐ฝ๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐น๐๐๐โ๐๐ก๐ก๐:
1. Snakecharmer: Snakecharmer, in a nutshell, is about thinking youโre possessed by demons and trying to kill them, only to realize that the demons were actually just your own evil manifesting in your head. โโBlow your brains out, Blow my brains outโโ
2. Quarantine Us All: This song is about feeling Like you have nothing positive to offer and feeling that The ones you love would be better off if you were not around.
3. Shake Me: This one is about dysfunctional relationships and how we can sometimes feed off of negative behaviours and start to accept them as the norm.
4. DeadHooker: I actually wrote most of the lyrics to this song 10 years ago and I wrote it all when I was blackout drunk. I think thatโs what itโs about, Just getting drunk to forget how ugly the world is.
5. LittleScum: This song is about taking out the garbage.
6. Crawling Up My Feet: This song is about falling in love with someone When youโre depressed or struggling with addiction. And essentially about how itโs pretty much impossible to love someone properly when you donโt love yourself.
7. Sickness Lives: Sickness lives is about feeling trapped in a sick society ruled by greed.
I guess you could say itโs our f*** the system song.
8. Relapse: This is probably my favourite song, I find it captures the essence of what we are as a band the most. Itโs also the song we took the album title โmaking out with my deathโโ from. Its name describes it perfectly.. this song is about Drugs and being self-destructive.
9. Straitjacket: This song is about going F****ing crazy.
and just not being able to keep up with your thoughts.
10. 10,000 vultures: This is the first song we ever wrote, itโs about love & death.
Local music scene in Montreal
I think given the circumstances, our local scene is proving to be pretty strong. I noticed a lot of bands have been helping to promote each other online, and since thereโs no shows thatโs really all we have for now. Thereโs definitely a lot of talent here in Montreal. I think itโs really up to all of us to support each other during and after this crisis. Not just the bands, but our venues too.
Other artists worth a check:
Junko Daydreamโs new EP โWe Make An Idol Of Our Fearsโ just came out and itโs an absolute banger the whole way through. Theyโre definitely one of our favourite bands that weโve played with.
Another great band worth checking out is Gorlvsh. Theyโre actually releasing their first album โNew City Vibeโ on June 5th, the same day that weโre releasing โMaking Out With My Deathโ. Outside of the local scene, weโre really looking forward to Every Time I Dieโs new album which will be coming out sometime this year.
Press praise for JUNKOWL:
โtheyโve made a name for themselves in the olโ Heavy Metal Cityโข with their energetic performances. And you know they have what it takes, since they won this yearโs En Route Vers Heavy and literally earned their spot to perform. So technically speaking, this is gonna be an award-winning performance!โ โ Forget The Box (Heavy Montreal 2019 preview)
โI had the pleasure of being a judge at En Route Vers Heavy and these guys were my number one choice. I am so happy they won and got to follow their dream. They fucking destroyed.โ โ Bucketlist Music Reviews
