ALBUM REVIEW: Cancer Bats – ‘Give Me Dirt’

Give Me Dirt begins with World Wild Fire Death Race, in which an utter titan of a riff sets the stage for what’s to come. Well, it is Cancer Bats; they’re pretty good at that.

On their eighth album, not much has changed. Cancer Bats’ reputation is as pristine as their sound is…not, with slamming, grotty hardcore built for the live stage that’s helmed by the paradoxically Labrador-like energy of Liam Cormier. At this point, mixing it up would just be doing a disservice to the bit they’ve committed to for over 20 years. They can get away with it, though. As one of the best-loved bands in the scene at this point, you get the impression that people are just happy they’re here.

That said, the odd tweak can’t hurt. In the case of Give Me Dirt, it might even make for one of their best albums in years. It’s nothing too major; just some behind-the-scenes personnel. When said person is Kurt Ballou, though, you start to see things taking shape. Yes, the Converge guitarist and producer of a million heavy masterpieces is lending his magic, sludgy touch to Cancer Bats, and it sure makes for a treat. Even just going back to that opening riff, there’s a nastiness to Jackson Landry’s guitar that’s unignorable, never shaken away or cut back elsewhere.

Paired with rev of Cancer Bats at the perennial top of their game, Give Me Dirt almost feels like the platonic ideal of a heavy rock album. Songs like Don’t Trip and Speed Wizard avalanche along, meaty and grisly as anything. Slowing it down gets you Ocean Crash, a track that, honestly, could afford to turn it down even further for some real oppressive mire, but the head-caving chug of it all is still more than welcome. There’s not a wasted breath taken or chord played, either. One of the most admirable things about Cancer Bats is their love of a tight, high-octane package, nailed once again on Give Me Dirt. This thing rattles along like nobody’s business, without even the slightest hint of sag or paunch. On an album partly inspired by motorcycles journeys, would you expect anything less?

Another theme in the purview of Give Me Dirt is a connection to nature and the physical world, which, again, proves all too apt. For one, it’s just a nice bit of semiotic coherence given how earthy and rugged the album sounds. It’s made clearest on the title track, but there’s plenty of imagery and symbolism peppered around that makes great use of what’s to hand. Similarly for songs like Long Tooth and especially Positive Gold, Cancer Bats’ keep-swinging attitude has seldom felt mightier thanks to everything working within it. The excitability of the band’s best just feels so much more concentrated across Give Me Dirt.

Obviously, plenty of credit for that has to go to Cormier. He’s great as always, and while there’s no widening of the breadth of his abilities, the consummate firepower he displays always makes up the difference. That’s true as ever on Give Me Dirt—a hoary, spluttering scream designed to convey pure momentum, with a trail of fire in its wake at all times. It’s the ingredient of Standard Flavour Cancer Bats that’s been touched the least by this grimier mix, but that’s not to say it can’t assimilate. Cormier continues to rip just as much as the rest of his band do, such is the main immutable characteristic of Cancer Bats.

Therefore, Give Me Dirt would be another fine addition into the Cancer Bats canon even if it weren’t a little harder and dirtier this time. The fact it is, is just a nice bonus. That said, it’s enough of one to where the difference is made, and there’s enough extra muscle packed in to call this pretty great. It’s rare for Cancer Bats to put a foot wrong; it might be rarer to feel as though there are still unexplored avenues for them to get even better. But that’s Give Me Dirt, one of Cancer Bats’ regular rippers where the rip is that much harder.

For fans of: Every Time I Die, The Bronx, The Damned Things

‘Give Me Dirt’ by Cancer Bats is released on 7th August on Marshall Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall