Cancer Bats preview

Cancer Bats
House Of Blues, Chicago
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

On their new album, Hail Destroyer, Cancer Bats prove mixing hardcore and metal doesn’t have to equate to lame-ass metalcore. Maybe tourmates Bleeding Through will take note.

The fact Cancer Bats even landed on tour with Bleeding Through and headliners Bullet For My Valentine is odd, but you can’t blame the Toronto group for going where the getting is good. Bullet For My Valentine is (somehow) a shit-hot mainstream metal act, and Bleeding Through have managed to stay afloat during metalcore’s shipwreck and are a favorite of the Hot Topic crowd. The first slot on an all-ages show (doors at HOB open at 5:30; show at an ungodly unmetal 6), though, isn’t an enviable gig (like Bats vocalist Liam Cormier says on “Pray For Darkness”, “Out in the sunshine, I can’t hack it/Give me the night with a black jean jacket”), but hopefully the kiddies get downtown early enough to see Bats, the evening’s best band.

Not to over state the band’s relevance. Today, the combination of breakneck hardcore punk and chugging metal isn’t anything earth-shattering (The Bronx and Chicago’s own The Killer are two bands who do it very well), nor is tossing in some Down-ish Southern metal influence (Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster come to mind), but Cancer Bats do all those styles well enough on Hail Destroyer (Black Market Activities) — their second full-length — to avoid being pegged one or the other. They aren’t just a punk band, just a hardcore band, or just a metal band. And if it’s a Chicago connection you crave, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath lends vocals to “Harem Of Scorpions.”

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly