Cancer Bats - Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones

Call it being blind or rather deaf, hell call it ignorance. But when Cancer Bats popped up in 2006 with Birthing The Giant, the potential was there but it didn’t seem to have anything particularly attention grabbing about it. But two years on and with Hail Destroyer they grabbed your balls with an iron tight grip and demanded your attention, and eventual love.
On this third effort the Canadian machine has shed nearly all their hardcore mannerisms and embraced a more dare we say, metal sound, as well as filthy southern grooves. Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones is a succinct and furious record, with only one track exceeding the four minute mark. It makes for each song being a thunderous, energetic and relentless one.

Cancer Bats will never, it would seem anyway, become a band to indulge in overt technicality. But here each player delivers a more pronounced performance. Guitarist Scott Middleton peels off countless inescapably memorable riffs, which he hinted at with previous efforts. Just listen to the urgency of tracks like 'Trust No One' and 'Snake Mountain' for proof.

In addition, vocalist Liam Cormier has entered a league of his own with this album, spitting his raspy vocals with ease. Again, his abilities have only grown and grown with time.

On record, Cancer Bats are a solid entity but it’s in the live setting that they come truly to life and become an unruly force to be reckoned with. These songs will have an even stronger verve breathed into them, like the hammering start of 'Drive This Stake' as it beckons a call to arms that will be fully realised when these road hogs bring it to the stage.

Cancer Bats are a transparent band, wearing their hearts and intentions on their sleeves. With that, Bear, Mayor Scraps & Bones is an honest record that should yield a myriad of conquests.

8/10