Montreal’s JUNKOWL are releasing their new album “Making Out With My Death” on June 5th and today we’re giving you their new single “Quarantine Us All”, a follow up to their recent video “Crawling Up My Feet”, 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, JUNKOWL’s unique blend of groove metal, stoner, and hardcore is matched with high energy βin your faceβ 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 βEn Route Vers Heavy Montrealβ; a competition between nearly 200 bands, landing them a spot at that yearβs edition of renowned metal festival Heavy Montreal.
On June 5th, 2020, they will release their debut album, βMaking Out With My Deathβ, a 10 track record full of sultry and powerful songs about past regrets and self-destructive behaviour.
It includes the bandβs favourite β10,000 Vulturesβ, 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:
Weβve been working on this record for about 2 years now and weβre really excited to see it come to life. Weβre always working on new material. The Coronavirus definitely slowed that process down but weβre all still writing on our own and sharing our ideaβs with each other. We had a few shows cancelled, and have no clue when weβll be able to do our album release party, but weβre all trying to stay positive.
πβππ ππππ’π ππ π π πππ€ ππππ ππππ, βπππ£π¦ πππππ , πππ, ππππ‘π¦ πππ π πππππ , ππ π¦ππ’π ππππ πππ’ππ πππ ππ’π‘-π€ππππβπππ π ππππππ π‘ππππππ π‘ππππ ππ π πππ-ππππ‘βπππ, cππππ’π πππ πππ πππ‘ππ₯ππππ‘πππ.
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.
πππππ ππ¦ πππππ πππππππ‘πππ¦ ππ¦ π£ππππππ π‘ π½ππ π π πΉπππβππ‘π‘π:
1. Snakecharmer: Snakecharmer, in a nutshell, is about thinking youβre possessed by demons and trying to kill them, only to realize that the demons were actually just your own evil manifesting in your head. ββBlow your brains out, Blow my brains outββ
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 that’s what itβs 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 youβre depressed or struggling with addiction. And essentially about how itβs pretty much impossible to love someone properly when you donβt love yourself.
7. Sickness Lives: Sickness lives is about feeling trapped in a sick society ruled by greed.
I guess you could say itβs 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. Itβs also the song we took the album title “making out with my deathββ 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, itβs 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 thereβs no shows thatβs really all we have for now. Thereβs definitely a lot of talent here in Montreal. I think itβs 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 Daydreamβs new EP βWe Make An Idol Of Our Fearsβ just came out and itβs an absolute banger the whole way through. Theyβre definitely one of our favourite bands that weβve played with.
Another great band worth checking out is Gorlvsh. Theyβre actually releasing their first album βNew City Vibeβ on June 5th, the same day that weβre releasing βMaking Out With My Deathβ. Outside of the local scene, weβre really looking forward to Every Time I Dieβs new album which will be coming out sometime this year.
Press praise for JUNKOWL:
βtheyβve made a name for themselves in the olβ Heavy Metal Cityβ’ with their energetic performances. And you know they have what it takes, since they won this yearβs En Route Vers Heavy and literally earned their spot to perform. So technically speaking, this is gonna be an award-winning performance!β β Forget The Box (Heavy Montreal 2019 preview)
βI 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.β β Bucketlist Music Reviews
