Cancer Bats CD Review
March 10, 2010

Label: Distort
Cancer Bats
Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones

www.cancerbats.com

By Mike Bax

Album number three from Canadian bad-asses Cancer Bats hits the streets on April 13th. Intro track ‘Sleep This Away’ picks up nicely where Hail Destroyer left off, being a relentless three minute aural assault rife with Liam Cormier’s razor-laced vocals.

The Bats are a band blessed with being able to appeal to fans of multiple genres. They are equal parts hardcore, metal, thrash and grind-core – a point easily illustrated on the track ‘Dead Wrong’ which boasts a killer metal guitar riff inter-twined with more of Cormier’s menacing vocals.

Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones (BMSB) is a very slick sounding album. While I don’t want to pee all over Birthing The Giant and Hail Destroyer (two wonderfully aggressive and entertaining albums) BMSB takes everything cool about the past two albums and somehow steps it all up significantly. ‘Black Metal Bicycle’ is destined to be a live crowd pleaser the same way ‘Lucifer’s Rocking Chair’ has been over the past couple of years – containing a blistering chorus and a sludgy head-banging guitar riff for a backbone that begs to be heard in a sweaty live environment.

While on the topic of live environments, the staple Cancer Bats live song from their show this past year has been ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys. ‘Sabotage’ is included as a studio version as the last track on BMSB, and the video for the track is currently on the splash page of the Cancer Bats website. It’s a suped-up version of an established crowd pleaser and works nicely as an ending to the album.

With a slot on the upcoming Billy Talent concerts (with Alexisonfire and Against Me!), Cancer Bats are positioned to enjoy their biggest year yet – and Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones is just the album to ride on as they do it.