Cancer bats – Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones (3.5/5)

01. Sleep This Away 03:21 02. Trust No One 02:43 03. Dead Wrong 02:40 04. Doomed to Fail 03:15 05. Black Metal Bicycle 03:32 06. We Are the Undead 02:54 07. Scared to Death 03:22 08. Darkness 03:42 09. Snake Mountain 02:48 10. Make Amends 03:04 11. Fake Gold 02:52 12. Drive This Stake 02:41 13. Raised Right 04:46 14. Sabotage (Beastie Boys cover) 03:01

If I was going to sum up Cancer bats in one sentence it would say this: ‘Its the Past, Present and Future of Hardcore punk’. This can be seen on Cancer bats 3rd album Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones. Its all pure heaviness from its mind numbing distorted riffing from the guitar to quite a bit of screaming and whaling from Liam Cornier on Vocals. For those who are die hard Cancer bats fan’s it is definitely a necessity in your collection. But on the other hand for people who are just trying to get into the bats maybe Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones isn’t the best starting marker for you.

When we had ‘Hail destroyer’ (Cancer bats 2nd album in 2008) we had top of the range sing along choruses from the likes of: Hail Destroyer, Deaths March, Regret and Bastard’s Waltz. With the new album it feels like all the ideas of getting the crowd singing along has been completely obliterated, and instead they have concentrated on becoming heavier. I appreciate that the tunes are of an amazing standard and have gotten heavier which many people will be glad of. But nothing can match screaming at the top of your voice ‘Hail Destroyer’ out in the Pit.

Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones is musically an amazing album, but from a fans point of view it lacks control and interest. With less than 45 minutes of in your face aggression, and a wide variety of 14 heavy songs, (Including a cover by the Beastie Boys) to make up for no sing along choruses. Its fair to say that even though Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones is an ok hardcore album. It is blown out of the water completely by its predecessor Hail Destroyer!

Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Metal

Article by Matt Seddon