Cancer Bats hail from Canada and have been shattering eardrums for some time now. Roping in Ross Robinson, who has worked with the likes of Slipknot, Sepultura and Blood Brothers, ensures this fifth album by the band is going in for the jugular. From the outset, lead singer Liam Cornier sounds like a heavily tormented soul. So as Satellites blasts off into the ether, current affairs, rigged politics and imperial blood sport are all issues that take turns to bludgeon the listener.
Heavy riffs are the order of the day as Scott Middleton does his best Tony Iommi licks. Arsenic In TYOTS comes across crunching and juddering as Cornier sounds like he can barely be contained by his own skin. Beelzebub is rightfully borderline metal as Cancer Bats forge melodrama from all their raw materials. Devil’s Blood is a torch song for their discovery of their metal perspective.
Cursed With A Conscience sounds, heaven forbid, radio friendly, building crescendo upon crescendo and by the time the final lick is dispensed with you would think the entire band would be in a coma. All Hail remains cathartic for its entire 88 seconds before Bud thuds around whilst offering some melodic resolution. And coming in at over three minutes it is almost an epic.
The end result of engaging a gun producer is a slick product that acts like thorn in pop’s side. Cancer Bats do not release their toxin into the bloodstream with any subtlety. Rather, like a surgical instrument, they pulverize the listener and by the ending the record with No More Bull Shit, those who think Cancer Bats are a good thing, may think they have pushed things a bit far. You can only imagine the bands delight if that is the widespread view.
BY BRONIUS ZUMERIS
