Chore Reignite Their Art Grunge Spark After 20 Years with New Album, Oswego Park, Featuring Ferocious Anthem “King”
After two decades in the shadows, Dunnville, Ontario’s own Chore are back — and they’ve come back swinging. Their long-awaited fourth album Oswego Park is out now via Sonic Unyon Records, and it’s every bit as ferocious, intricate, and emotionally raw as fans could hope for.
Lead single “Cowards Can” set the stage, but it’s “King” — a jagged, riff-heavy gut punch — that cements Chore’s return. The track lurches through knotty time signatures and chaotic bursts of energy, capturing the suffocating pressures of modern life in a way that feels both unhinged and cathartic. If you’ve ever felt crushed under the weight of online noise and self-doubt, “King” hits like a mirror held up to that chaos.
Still, Oswego Park is far from a one-note battering ram. The record veers between math-metal intricacy, brooding alt-rock atmospherics, and soaring melodic payoffs, a testament to the band’s refusal to sit still creatively. Written and recorded between 2017 and 2022 — much of it during the pandemic — the album feels less like a “comeback” and more like a rebirth.
Titled after a rural subdivision between Dunnville and Smithville, Oswego Park grounds itself in the band’s roots. “We’ve always waved a little Dunnville flag in our work,” bassist Mike Bell says. “This album really drives it home.”
Recorded and mixed by former bandmate Mitch Bowden at Mechanical Noise Studio, the album thrives on deep-rooted chemistry and a relaxed, DIY energy. The band call it their most enjoyable studio experience yet — and it shows.
Chore may not be hitting the road full-time again, but they’re marking the release with a special one-off Hamilton show, their first in over 20 years. And for Mike Bell, the record itself is enough: “We’ve finally made the record we were always trying to make when we were kids. If that’s all this reunion ends up being, I’m more than happy. Everything else is gravy.”
