ALBUM REVIEW: Give Me Dirt – Cancer Bats
Riff masters, lords of chaos and now eco-Warriors. CANCER BATS ride with furious intensity and glorious purpose on righteous new album Give Me Dirt.
When they’re not busy paying respects to our metal forefathers BLACK SABBATH under the moniker BAT SABBATH, the ever raucous Canadian rock heroes revert back to their natural form to do what they do best. If you ever look back through their back catalogue, (or should we say bat catalogue?) they hardly miss and rarely put a foot out of place. If this album teaches us anything it’s that CANCER BATS are one of the most consistently visceral and skull-smashing bands on the globe.
So what does Give Me Dirt have to offer? With 20 years under their belt, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear it’s more of the same and then some. From the opening mind-warping riff the band sink their fangs deep and release the venom early. Drunk on heavy grooves and painfully harsh vocals, a wave of blisteringly rowdy tunes emerge from the shadows and pounce on you with delirious intensity. Even after 20 years CANCER BATS are more scorching than ever.
But what really drives the album is it has a firm chokehold on the narrative. The record was mainly inspired by lead singer Liam Cormier’s motorcycle road trip through the Canadian mountains. When he pulled up to the studio and jumped on the mic, what emerged was frustration at the destruction of the environment as well as a newfound love and appreciation for the therapeutic and healing remedies Mother Earth has to offer.
World Wild Fire Death Race expresses the anger and frustration of wildfires plaguing the world, whilst tracks like Bright Eyes of Gold delves into the lessons natural remedies can teach us. Considering we’ve all spent a couple of months sweating our arses off, it’s a welcome message. Hell, if Greenpeace could shred and churn out fiery tunes like CANCER BATS we’d all be dipping into our pockets and donating more. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, we ask CANCER BATS for mind-blowing rock ‘n’ roll tunes and by God did we get them. But the flaw on this album is that it’s hard to pick up on the nuance. On the first listen it’s easy to get distracted by the rampageous energy and the piercing statements Cormier has to offer gets lost in the noise.
We were hardly expecting the band to hold hands in a circle and sing Kumbaya. But whilst the guys get extra points for taking CANCER BATS to a whole new realm to explore, it’s more of a question of whether the message and the execution really gel together.
When push comes to shove, we came for chaos and we got it with Give Me Dirt. And for that we always tip our hats to the tour de force that is CANCER BATS.
Rating: 7/10
Give Me Dirt is out now via Marshall Records.
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