Cancer Bats – Liam Cormier

Over the past 8 years, the Cancer Bats have wildly impressed both the metal and hardcore side of heavy music with their fusion of heavy metal subgenres into a hardcore-punk sound. After their last album “Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones” which was a lot more darker than their usual stuff, the band have just released their latest album “Dead Set on Living”, which steered away from the “traditional hardcore record”. While on tour with post-hardcore band Touche Amore, lead vocalist Liam Cormier had a chat to Metal Obsession about their new album, their plans for the rest of this year, the unity of metal and hardcore, and their Black Sabbath cover band, Bat Sabbath.

Metal Obsession: Hey dude, what’s going on?

Liam Cormier: Ah not much, just chillin’.

Metal Obsession: How’s your current tour going so far?

Liam: So far, so good! We’ve been out for two weeks across Canada with Touche Amore, and it’s come down to the last three shows. The whole thing is awesome; heaps of shows have been sold out. All the shows have been going off, and it’s been really fun.

Metal Obsession: Awesome! What was the theme behind your new album, Dead Set on Living, and what influenced it?

Liam: The whole theme was, for me going into it lyrically, was just trying to be super positive and talk about what’s most important in life. I think we really hammered that home, being positive even though people come along and try and mess with you, you have to keep focused, persevere and try to work through that.

Metal Obsession: Compared to previous releases, is the musically upbeat nature of this album a sign of things to come for the band, or was it merely a test of unknown waters?

Liam: I think that for us, we’re making sure that we don’t move too far from where we’ve come. Birthing the Giant was a real upbeat and positive record, same with those elements in Hail Destroyer. With Bears, Mayors, Scrapes and Bones, it definitely was a lot darker than the other albums. We wanted to marry the two ideas to have the hardcore and punk nature that we had on our first two records, but add those grimy, sludgy aspects to it as well. I think for us to just not move too far in the name of progression is the way to go.

Metal Obsession: What was it like working with Dez Fafara from DevilDriver on the track Bastards?

Liam: Dez is the best. We managed to go on tour with DevilDriver for a month throughout the US and Canada. He’s just such a rad dude, everyone in that band is awesome. I mean, somebody like Dez, who has been in metal for so long and is still passionate about it, and still stoked on new bands, it’s really refreshing for us. When I was writing the song Bastards, I definitely thought of Dez and like, somebody who could really compliment that idea, but then also at the same time, how brutal and heavy that song is, I thought his voice would really fit.

So yeah, we just messaged him asking if he wanted to add a part into the track, and he was super down. We sent the track to him over in California, and he was able to record it real quick. We did absolutely no revision at all, he just sent us in lines, and they totally fit with the whole vibe of the song. For me, the lyrics written had fit right in, so I couldn’t be happier with it. He’s the best.

Metal Obsession: So what do the Cancer Bats have planned now that the album is nearly released? Can we expect an Australian tour soon?

Liam: That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now. Hopefully we can come back down to Australia sooner than later. I mean, it’s literally in the works as we speak. Hopefully I’ll have some news about that within the next couple of weeks. For us, right now we’ve already started touring, and we’re not gonna stop for the rest of the year. I’m sure there will be an Australian tour at some point, somewhere.

Metal Obsession: Whenever an Australian tour happens, do you plan on bringing any bands along with you?

Liam: I’d like to. There are so many rad hardcore bands right now that we’d love to bring down to Australia if we could. Right now, we’re on tour with Touche Amore, those guys are killing it. We’d be super-stoked on stuff I know like La Dispute, we just heard about those shows and heard that they were super-crazy. We’d love to come down with a band like that. We’re also all about finding out rad local bands. We took out In Trenches on our last tour, and in New Zealand we took out Leeches, so for me it’d be rad to find out about more awesome Australian bands that we could tour with too.

Metal Obsession: With that being said, I’m guessing you research bands from a certain place before you tour, just to see how the live scene is going and what bands are coming out of it?

Liam: Yeah, I mean we’re all fans of hardcore, so it’s fun to find out about new, rad stuff coming up. That’s what I’ve always loved about the hardcore scene, there is always new and refreshing bands. I think the more we tour, we realise that not only those bands just come from the United States and Canada, there’s a rad hardcore scene in Australia, as well as the UK and Scandinavia.

Metal Obsession: So what’s your favourite Australian band?

Liam: Definitely for me, getting to tour with In Trenches. One of the guys are from Day of Contempt, and that was way back in the day, and they were such a rad band, so to know that he’s still doing awesome stuff with those dudes is good. We’ve also got to tour with Deez Nuts on our first time over, and we became really good friends with JJ, so we hung out with them. We played shows with The Red Shore on our first time over, and then we actually got to tour with them the second time we came with Bring Me the Horizon. It’s rad to know that you guys have real heavy bands.

Metal Obsession: Tell me about the last Australian tour you did with Bullet for my Valentine and Bring Me the Horizon.

Liam: It went super cool. We are friends with both of those bands, so we were invited to come down with them. We were really lucky that after the shows with those two bands, we had our own headline club shows. We would finish our set before Bring Me the Horizon, and then we’d pack up and go to our own show and play at midnight in a bar. We did those shows with In Trenches, and they were awesome. Getting to do a tour within a tour is more than what you could ask for.

Metal Obsession: Do you believe that the divide or unity of metal and hardcore exists?

Liam: I think so. It definitely exists between metal, hardcore and punk rock. I think that worldwide, the fact that it is a small scene and everyone knows that they need to come together to make it work, is something that exists everywhere. I think it’s why we’re drawn to that scene in general, you meet all of these close and passionate people that like the same kind of aggressive music. That’s why we have that common bond, regardless of where you’re from.

It’s really rad to be a part of that scene, especially touring worldwide, we can go to the US, or Scandinavia, or Germany, or Australia, and you meet all of these same, admiring individuals. It’s a rad experience.

Metal Obsession: What are your personal thoughts on metal music in general?

Liam: I think that in general, the whole thing is rad. There are a lot of rad bands that have that crossover kind of element. When I was young, I just kind of thought of everything as hardcore, then when I listened to stuff like Pantera, I was like oh. There are bands like those who are just considered metal, then you listen to D.R.I. or Anthrax and you’re like “Oh, whatever.” It’s just music. I like how that exists.

Metal Obsession: A while ago on the Sonisphere Festival, Cancer Bats did a second set as a Black Sabbath cover band called ‘Bat Sabbath’. Can you tell me how that went?

Liam: It was awesome! We got asked to play songs by them to kind of close out the Sunday night. We did a Black Sabbath cover set after Slipknot finished. On the 10^th stage, we did it, and the whole thing was packed. It was all for people that wanted to keep partying, and it was fun for us because everybody knows the words to every Black Sabbath song, especially in England. So we played to about 5,000 people singing songs like Iron Man and War Pigs, it was rad.

And then from now, people saw YouTube videos of it and stuff, so more people want to see it. We were able to do a whole tour of it in Canada, and now we’re gonna do a bunch of shows in Europe as Bat Sabbath. It’s kind of like a fun, other side of things for us.

Metal Obsession: What was the first CD you ever purchased? Did you like it?

Liam: I think it was in 1995, I bought Evil Empire by Rage Against the Machine. That’s one of my favourite albums of all time. I was kind of late getting in on buying CD’s, because I didn’t have much money so I couldn’t buy a CD player. I had cassettes forever, so in 1995 I was still buying cassettes.

Metal Obsession: Well what was the first cassette that you purchased?

Liam: One of the first cassettes I ever purchased was Paranoid by Black Sabbath. I remember looking for some, and that was the only cassette they had in the Black Sabbath section. I ended up going back there the next weekend and bought AC/DC live, which was a double cassette. It was awesome.

Metal Obsession: Was that the Live in Donington one?

Liam: Nah, I think it was from 1987 or something. I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Metal Obsession: Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Liam: Just that we’re hopefully coming down to Australia sooner than later. The last time we played was great, so I think the next time will be even crazier!

The new Cancer Bats album ‘Dead Set on Living’ 

Release dates – April 16 through Hassle Records (Europe), April 17 through Distort Entertainment (Canada), April 20 through Shock Records (Australia/NZ) and April 23 through Metal Blade Records (USA).