Cancer Bats Album Release Show "An Hour Of Thick, Brutal Musical Extremity"

The Mod Club

Toronto, ON

on Apr 22 2008

Keith Carman (CHARTattack)

04/23/2008 2:30pm

Apparently Tuesday night is apparently the new Friday night thanks to Toronto's metal/hardcore heroes Cancer Bats.

Well, every night is the new Friday night if you have the power to incite hundreds of bodies to crawl out of their homes on an evening when homework looms, everyone's gotta get up the next morning and the coming weekend is still much further away than the one you're still recuperating from.

Countless bodies were crammed into The Mod Club to celebrate the release of the band's latest album Hail Destroyer. Singer Liam Cormier, guitarist Scott Middleton, bassist Jaye R. Schwarzer and drummer Mike Peters were in fine form from the first bowel-shaking note of set-opener and title track "Hail Destroyer" through an hour of thick, brutal musical extremity.

They hit the stage with little fanfare — although they were almost flashed-out by The Mod Club's ample lighting rig — Cancer Bats proceeded to churn the already twisted wreckage of metal's squealing guitars and chunky rhythms through a hardcore meat grinder. The entire set was performed with more passion, rumbling power and throat-tearing wails than even their formidable recordings can do justice to. These songs don't just transfer to a live setting; they were made for it. The crowd reacted like a rabid pack of Pavlov's dogs and was a blur of flailing, tattooed arms, disheveled hair and band T-shirts. They prodded the foursome to push even harder through both new tracks and fan favourites from previous effort Birthing The Giant, including "100 Grand Canyon" and "Shillelagh."

Cormier's endless flailing, wailing and crowd interaction inevitably ended in the grandest of stage dives, which saw him carried across the sea of bodies in a Peter Gabriel-esque manner before he calmly returned to the stage for a rousing encore. Quite possibly the most entertaining element of the evening was Cormier's continual proclamations of gratitude towards the audience. He was clearly shocked by the sheer numbers and enthusiasm.

Adding to the mix, Middleton was engrossed in his best Zakk Wylde impersonation, from the Grizzly Adams facial hair and leather vest to pinch harmonic guitar wails and blond locks that whipped around as if his head was some sort of demented Tilt-A-Whirl. Schwarzer looked like something out of either Mastodon or Against Me! (half clean-cut, half fucking dirty), and his confident, growling back-up vocals and fiery bass attack were equally enthralling. Naturally, behind it all, Peters kept solid time and took in the visual cacophony in front of him.

They disappeared from the stage as abruptly as they attacked it. To paraphrase The Commitments, Cancer Bats struck like lightning and then snuck back into the night, leaving 'em battered and bruised but wanting more. And in a typically stuffy hometown like Toronto, that's one incredible feat.