Noblesville, IN 8/16/24
The Funeral Portrait was a band first brought to my attention by one of my friends who—interestingly enough—works in the funeral industry. A few days after he expressed his love for the art was when it was announced the band would be joining Slaughter To Prevail supporting Marilyn Manson and Five Finger Death Punch. In my friend's own words, translated from his excitement and misspelling of text messages; "OMG, they're touring with Manson?! You gotta send me photos and tell me all about it."
After having seen The Funeral Portrait live three different times now, I can very enthusiastically say that they are finally getting the recognition they deserve. I was able to briefly meet with Lee Jennings on August 17 after their set in Chicago. I proposed an interview and got in contact with the band's PR the following week.
They have very graciously sent me their upcoming album 'Suffocate City' to review, and I have been blown away. If you think the songs that they are choosing to play live are good, you're going to love this record. The album opens with the single and title track 'Suffocate City (feat. Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills)'. The song is a perfect start to the album. The vocals from Charnas and Jennings blend and compliment each other, while the upbeat sounding chorus is always bound to turn heads from the crowd.
Now, speaking of Suffocate City, that's the song with Spencer from Ice Nine, how did that kind of come about? Did you always kind of have it in mind that you wanted a feature on that song, or did it just kind of happen?
"It kind of just happened, and it's weird because like, last year we played Silver Scream Con which is Spencer's and Ice Nine Kills' convention that they run. He invited us to go open the show and apparently he became a fan of the band, and it was like, okay, cool. I had no idea he would even be paying attention to us. You know, he's so busy doing like seventy things at once all the time. And he kind of reached out and was like "Hey, I like your guys stuff. Maybe we could work together at some point." and I was like "Sure??" like that's crazy. We sent him Suffocate City and he was like "Yo! This song is sick." and he listened to that second verse and he was like, "Did you like, write that for me already?" and I was like, "No, not really." and he was like "Oh, well it sounds like something I would sing. Sounds like something I would do. Let's do it." So we did it and it was sick. He sent it right back, and then the next thing I know is I'm on a plane to L.A to go film the second half of the music video, where like—not to spoil it—but I get like, captured by him and his goons, and it turns into this whole thing. And it's cool because, that was all filmed first and then three weeks later, we filmed the first half of the video. So, it was kind of cool to work with him on all of that."
Following this track is 'Blood Mother', a dark and heavy track that happens to be one of my personal favorites off the record. With lines in the chorus such as "When I start bleeding, who's gonna doctor me up / I'm not a believer / When my blood's boiling, you'll be there bubbling up / 'Cause you're my blood mother", the song's rhythm and addicting guitar tone makes it one of my personal favorites to hear live.
'Doom And Gloom''s melancholic guitar chords that transition to heavy distorted tones evoked heavy nostalgia in myself. The sound reminds me of the music I would listen to when I was first getting into rock music in middle school. The vocals and guitar style almost reminded me of the very first singles from the band I Don't Know How But They Found Me. Listening to this song made me feel like how I felt when I was younger, listening to artists like My Chemical Romance in my room and making a MySpace account incase of the rare chance the website were to come back to life.
We get another fun sounding song with the track 'Holy Water'. The mood and sound carries the same vibe as Blood Mother in terms of tempo and style. I find that the chorus vocals in the break before the bridge are a nice touch in creating more dimension within the song.
I know that one of my favorite songs that I heard you play at the live shows and while I was listening through the album is 'Dark Thoughts (Feat. Danny Worsnopp)'. What can you tell us about that song?
"Yeah, so that's another favorite. It's kind of crazy because I never thought that [the song] was going to be a single. When we worked on the record, I loved the song, but I never was like, "This is gonna be a single!" or anything. It turned into a single because we were trying to find what was kind of next to be released. The label was like "Let's release Dark Thoughts.'' and I was like "Okay, cool. Let's see." And it kind of turned on to this huge new life of its own, you know? It's a song about having OCD and anxiety, which I have and it's weird. It's the OCD that's like—it's not like I wanna clean everything, it's the OCD of like, I have intrusive thoughts and I obsess over the smallest of little details or the biggest of problems in my life, and I can't sleep, and I can't do anything. I mean, there was a moment of time time where I probably didn't sleep for a whole week, and I started taking sleeping medicine and stuff like that but I didn't like who it turned me into. Recently, I don't take any prescription pills or anything like that, which is great because I just, again, I think a lot of that comes from in finding who I am. But I think having OCD and anxiety is hard, you know, especially when you're on the road, but having these songs that I can sing and having the right support system around me and the people on tour with me, whoever it is—people back home—is so important, and I've been able to kind of build that over the years. Now I can finally kind of exist in this world of having these problems, and not wanting to literally just kill myself."
'Dark Thoughts' is probably my top song off this album. The song features Danny Worsnop from Asking Alexandria on guest vocals, and—similarly to the title track—the blending of vocals between the two artists are wonderful. The track's deep lyrics combined with the pinch harmonics in the main riffs really create a memorable tune that is sure to get stuck in your head. This song was always the one I looked forward to at the shows I attended.
Now, I know we've already touched on how you guys like playing on tour, but you guys are playing arenas, you're opening for Marilyn Manson and Five Finger Death Punch. I was wondering, what was it like when you guys found out you were going to be supporting these artists?
"So, it was literally midnight—Oh my God—it was right before we went on tour with Dead On A Sunday, so it was January, February, March? It was literally like the week before this tour got announced. My attorney called me, because he works with Five Finger Death Punch as well, and he was like "Hey, I think you guys are gonna get an offer to open this Five Finger Death Punch Marilyn Manson tour." And I was like "No way." Like, it's not happening, there's no way we're doing it. You're joking. Whatever. Well, time went on a little bit that the tour got announced, you know, tickets went on sale and everything, and then we were kind of like "Okay, well we're not announced yet." And the reason why is they wanted to see how one or two of our songs would do more, or something. It was just kind of, one thing lead to the next, and then all of a sudden, I get an email saying "Here's the flyer, post it tomorrow. We're going live." And I'm like "Oh my God, guys. It's real. It's happening." And that's literally how it went down, because then we posted it and it went live, and we were like "Okay." And it's still—we didn't think we were going to be able to do it. Like, something was going to happen. You know, we always kind of have a weird bad luck anyways, so we were like "Okay, this ain't gonna happen." So, I was like, "Yeah, I don't know about that." The first day showed up and we were like "Alright, it's real. It happened. We're here." And now we're, you know, a month in and it's like, wow. This is insane, like I can't believe this has happened."
'You're So Ugly When You Cry' is another pop punk and emo inspired track. There are slight techno elements in the background of certain verses that fit together well with the overall feel of this record. The song features Bert McCracken from The Used on guest vocals as well.
Continuing with the electronic feel, we hear the heavy and melodic song 'Chernobyl_' This song reminds me of the style of "spooky music"; a term mentioned by Lee during this interview. This song's heavy guitar and vocal style is probably another one of my favorites on this album. The feel of this song reminds me of work by the band Motionless In White. This song is another example of The Funeral Portrait's range of creation that further supports my claim, stating that you may like this band regardless of the genres you're into. Track 8 is a song titled 'Dopamine' It's a rock ballad sound with gut retching lyrics bounded together with a aggressively resolution of a chorus.
"There's also one called 'Dopamine' which is about my problem with love addiction, and it's like a really weird thing to talk about because, like, I don't know. A lot of people kind of shy away from addiction in general, but the idea of something that people don't realize can be addiction is love. You know, not in the quote sexual mindset, but in more of the feeling and the dopamine that you get from being in love. So, that's a huge part to me."
"Voodoo Doll" is a haunting track featuring Eva Under Fire. This single, originally released in 2022, is a perfect addition to the dark elements this record presents. Eva Marie's deep vocal tone is an addicting element that makes the listener want to listen to this track on loop. Hearing this song live is an incredible experience that must be seen to believed.
The next song is yet another song with a dark guitar tone, yet brighter in the chorus. This song is 'Happier Than You'. It's a track in which you can feel the emotion put in by the band and visually see the meaning in your head. We then listen to yet another emotion sounding track titled 'Alien'.
The energy picks back up with the track 'Generation Psycho'. Still having those electronic elements like mentioned before, this song combines melodic singing with harsh shouts and screams that really make the song it's own. It's a very fun sounding track that I can just see fans adoring.
Jennings described it best when talking about track 13 'Stay Weird' having almost an anthem like sound. This track stuck out to me personally, and I can sense it becoming a fan favorite very quicky.
"This last song song that I'm really excited for is called Stay Weird. It's just this super anthemic, Queen-esque piano ballad with roaring guitars and stuff. It's kind of like a love letter to my younger self to just be you and just stay me. You know, something that I struggled with for so long with myself was that. Like, I never felt like I could be me until I really started doing this band more and more. Really, I felt like I came into my own and being who I am in about 2020. I finally felt comfortable in my skin. I felt more comfortable with who I am. I feel more confident now more than ever, and like, now as an adult, I wanted to write a song that was this love letter to younger me to just stay me, stay you, stay weird."
The final track to conclude this album is titled 'Hearse For Two'. It's another slower paced, yet powerful song. It is a perfect way to wrap up this album, especially with the chorus. With heartstring-pulling lines such as "If I die before you wake / Pray that I am yours to take / From the Earth up to the moon / Just to rest in peace with you." we conclude the record Welcome To Suffocate City. I am super excited to see the response this album gets when it comes out, and am super glad that I was able to talk with Lee today about the record. Linked below is the full interview.
You can presave Welcome To Suffocate City, out 9/13, below.
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