I try to be as honest as I can be in writing about music at our putrid site, but in the case of the Canadian progressive/technical death metal band Bookakee, I need to be brutally honest: Knowing very little about their previous musical output before listening to the group’s new album, Ignominies, I was initially quite skeptical. Maybe “put off” would be even more accurate.
The band’s name, coupled with their outlandish full-body make-up, their reported use of gory props on stage, and the PR brandishing of the band as “Montreal’s answer to GWAR“, made me suspicious. Rightly or wrongly, I glumly surmised that the music wouldn’t be worth taking seriously — that no matter how much fun their live shows might be, this would be a band who relied more on gimmickry than song-writing or performance skill. (The fact that I’m not a huge GWAR fan undoubtedly played a role.)
Having listened to Ignomonies despite all my misgivings, I am here to confess, with some embarrassment but without reservation, that I couldn’t have been more wrong. And if you happen to be approaching the album with a similar judgmental skepticism, hear me out — and then by all means hear this album through the full stream we’re premiering today in advance of its release by Transcending Records on June 29th. Continue reading »
