EP REVIEW: You’ll Never Break Us: Separation Sessions Vol. 1 – Cancer Bats
The ongoing hell-year that 2020 has turned out to be has been awful for just about everyone in the music scene in general, with tours being pulled left, right and centre to account for the sudden onset of travel bans, social distancing and other such things brought on by COVID-19. Canadian hardcore-punk heavyweights CANCER BATS, by all accounts, should have spent much of the year on the road continuing to promote 2018’s brilliant The Spark That Moves, as well as celebrating the 10th anniversary of Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones, however when it quickly became apparent that neither would happen, they instead began working in isolation on a rather left-field idea – turning the amps down rather than up, and acoustically-reworking a few choice cuts from their extensive back catalogue into what has now become an EP for charity Water First NGO, entitled You’ll Never Break Us: Separation Sessions Vol. 1.
Kicking things off in Hail Destroyer territory, opener Deathsmarch To A New Acoustic Beat sets the tone of what’s to come rather well; managing to retain the anthemic quality of the scrappy original, whilst retrofitting it to a completely new bluesy acoustic backing. It’s much slower in pace than fans might be accustomed to, yes, but stripping things this far back only brings greater prominence to Liam Cormier’s mightily impressive vocal performance – capably holding his own in a duet-of-sorts alongside the release’s sole special guest, longtime friend of the band, Ojibway singer-songwriter Nick Sherman. Transposed to this new setting, the track’s “Hey world, you’ll never break me” chorus somehow feels even more impactful, and it’s merely the first of many highlights to come.
The general template of dark country, is pretty much how the rest of You’ll Never Break Us… goes, with guitarist Scott Middleton’s usual punchy riffing mostly ditched in favour of twangy acoustic guitar lines, and Cormier’s trademark screeching oft replaced with a surprisingly soulful melodic croon. Road Sick Sick Sick So Stay Home (yes, if you hadn’t realised by now, every song has an appropriately-2020 new title) does still see him somewhat-belting by the climax, but for the most part, it’s an EP of experimentation for the veteran frontman.
Both Black Metal Bicycle My Blues Riffs Away and Darkness Lite for example, almost couldn’t sound more different from their Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones origins if they tried; given a completely new swaggering feel courtesy of Cormier’s performance atop the driving percussion of drummer Mike Peters and guitars of Middleton and Jaye Schwarzer (who’s also given a jokingly prominent feature at the tail end of the EP for some choice banjo playing).
It’s not entirely a nostalgia-trip across the EP’s runtime though; The Spark That Moves gets a welcome look-in too, with the newly-dubbed Bed of Nails Dreams of Tambourines providing the most pacey moment of the entire collection – clattering along at almost the pace you’d usually expect from the plugged-in CANCER BATS, albeit obviously with more melody than straight sonic heft, before everything comes to an emphatic close thanks to the tinkered-with fan favourite Lucifer’s Slightly Less Rocking Chair…or so you’d think anyway.
There’s one final surprise in store for anyone picking up the EP from Bandcamp though, as Bastards Waltz Recorded Live From TV sees yet another Hail Destroyer-era favourite given a twangy blues update. Rarely has the repetition of the phrase “Coughing up blood/Coughing up blood” ever sounded like such a great fit for southern-tinged country music, but somehow it just works for CANCER BATS, and serves as a nice coda to this most different of records.
As far as sonic diversions go, it’s difficult to imagine many more surprisingly-effective ways in which CANCER BATS could have tinkered with their usual sound. Taking about as far a stride as one could imagine from their usual metallic fury, You’ll Never Break Us: Separation Sessions Vol. 1 sees the band stumbling upon an unexpectedly impactful niche which, should they choose to follow up with a Vol. 2 as the titling suggests, they can surely add to, and take this alternate sound to as many places as they want.
Rating: 7/10
You’ll Never Break Us: Separation Sessions Vol. 1 is out now via Bat Skull Records/New Damage Records.
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