Get to know 2023 Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year nominees, Get the Shot in our “7 Questions With” series where we speak with first-time JUNO Award nominees from all genres.
Merciless Destruction, marks the awaited return of Quebec City’s hardcore scene trailblazers, GET THE SHOT. As with “No Peace In Hell” (2014) and “Infinite Punishment”(2017), the fourth album sees the band exploring new territories of extreme music, while sticking to its roots and its fierce DIY approach to music. GET THE SHOT incorporates death metal and beatdown elements on Merciless Destruction. Over countless tours across the globe the band has taken inspiration from many bands along the way and refined their sound, while also taking influence from some of the top heavy artists such as Obituary, Cannibal Corpse and Machine Head.
1. How does it feel to be nominated for a JUNO award?
It’s definitely a surprise and a tremendous honour to receive that kind of recognition from the industry. It’s a reel privilege for us to be the first hardcore band from Quebec City to be nominated for such an award.
2. Tell us a bit about your JUNO-nominated project.
Our newest album “Merciless Destruction” is our 4th record and definitely our greatest & heaviest musical achievement to date. It was mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson from Cryptopsy who’s one of the best metal producers in the country. While MD is mostly a hardcore record, it really shows our ability to mix different metal influences like death metal, slam death, thrash metal, beatdown in order to build very primitive heavy music. We wanted to write the most dangerous record to ever come out of Quebec City and I guess we kind of reached that goal.
3. What has been the craziest moment of your music career to date?
We lived so many awesome moments during the last 13 years on the road that it’s hard to chose one. But I guess playing Hellfest in France, one of the biggest metal festival in the world, in front of 15 000 people is one of the craziest. French people have been supporting our band since our first European tour in 2013 and we really built a strong connection with them. So playing in front of them all at the same time was huge and the show was nothing less than legendary.
4. What’s your favourite lyric from this project, and why does it resonate with you so much?
I would say the song “Deathbound” is my favourite considering that it’s the heaviest and angriest track we ever wrote, both lyrically and musically. While there’s nothing groundbreaking about the lyrics, it’s such an effective and catchy song about revenge. “Welcome to Quebec City you son of a bitch” is still the best catchphrase I ever wrote and I’m proud to name the city we come from in that song.
5. Which Canadian artist would you like to collaborate with and why?
We already had the chance to work with some of the most talented musicians and producers in the country. Recording with Christian Donaldson from Cryptopsy and collaborate on a song with Alex Erian from Despised Icon are still some of the coolest experiences we had. That being said, as strange as it may seem, it would be a dream to have a famous rapper like Drake dropping some bars over one of our breakdowns. I’ve always loved the combination of rap flow and heavy music.
6. What would you like music fans to know about you? How would you introduce your music to new or soon-to-be fans?
We play angry music for angry kids and outcasts who feel like strangers in this world. If you like hardcore, beatdown, death metal or any kind of music that makes you want to break something down, you’ll probably like GTS.
7. What’s next for you?
A lot of things! First, we’re heading to Europe & UK for our headline tour in March. Then we’ll be touring Japan for the first time at the end of May and we’ll be back on tour in Europe again this summer for festival season. Amongst others, we’ll be playing Wacken Open Air in Germany in August, which is the biggest metal festival in the whole world. So we’re extremely excited about this.
Rewatch every performance and memorable moment from The 2023 JUNO Awards broadcast, on CBC Gem, CBCMusic.ca/junos and The JUNO Awards social channels.
