Bookakee

Bookakee was born in 2007 at Montmorency College in Laval, just north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Guitarist Simon-Pierre Gagnon started jamming with drummer Simon Ducasse in the college's recording studio. The project started to take shape as Jerome Gosselin joined in on rythm guitar, Jonathan David on bass and singer Bruno Fournier completed the formation. Inspired by many different metal bands such as Opeth, Death, Cephalic Carnage & Slipknot, the band played their first show in 2008. Soon after, they replaced the singer by 2 brothers named Tito & Gonzo who would share vocal duties as one sang lower and the other higher. That's when the band's image and concept appeared. They splashed green paint all over their clothes, started throwing inflatable dolls in the crowd, added dancing girls with masks spraying the crowd with water guns. The stage theatrics coupled with the crushing yet fun death metal songs were an instant success which prompted Bookakee to enter a battle of the bands called 'Metal Academy' in 2009. 18 bands competed over 4 months at the mythical 'Cafe Chaos' in Montreal with Bookakee being crowned the winners. After recording their demo and playing a couple more shows, singer Gonzo left the band and Tito followed not too long after. They also parted ways with guitarist Jerome and that's when the band was re-born. Singer Philippe Langelier and guitarist Mat Paré joined the formation and brought a new direction. Philippe brought in experience, having sung for many metal bands of many genres and being a former Canadian Idol participant. Mat brought management and bookings and that's when Bookaking Productions was born. In 2011 Bookakee released their first 6 song EP, recorded and mixed by guitarist Simon-Pierre Gagnon in his home studio. Philippe being a visual artist, he provided all the artwork for the album and started adding full body makeup to the members' look. They started playing more and more shows, sharing the stage with such acts as Obscura, Cryptopsy, Augury, Beyond Creation, Powerglove and many more. As they garnered more and more attention with their theatrical humoristic horror antics, the band joined another contest in 2012, this one for a spot to play on the Heavy MTL festival in Montreal. 20 bands were selected out of the 250 who applied and Bookakee made it all the way to the finals. Even though they didn't win they were still added to the festival as a late replacement, playing in front of 2000 rabbid fans and sharing the stage with The Faceless, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Origin & Voivod. In 2013, drummer Simon Ducasse quit and was replaced by Jean-Philippe Bouchard, who brought in sequences and triggers. Highly enhancing the band's performance and sound, the new drummer opened new doors of musical composition and technical improvement. Often refered to as Montreal's answer to Gwar, Bookakee have now played over 80 shows, always pushing the boundaries of entertainment value coupled with melodic well crafted death metal songs. The band released their first full-length album 'Whorrific' on december 13th 2013. An album that was highly praised by fans and critics worldwide. Listen to our New Album 'Whorrific' for FREE http://bookakee.bandcamp.com/album/whorrific