Cancer Bats’ Liam Cormier takes us through every riff, scream and positive affirmation of their rip-roaring, raucous and radical new full-length.

World Wild Fire Death Race 

This ripping metal anthem was inspired by the countless forest fires we see on the news all over the world. For us in Canada, we witness firsthand the devastation they cause, and oftentimes we learn after the fact all of the financial decisions that have resulted in the environmental travesties. Corporate greed, cutbacks from Government for fire prevention, all mixed in with the climate crisis we currently face, leaves us all in a literal death race.  Once this song was finished, we all knew that it would be perfect to kick off the album.  Not to mention having the legend Nate Newton lend his vocals to the verse and chorus, it just makes this song a total ripper!

Stay Stuck 

At any age, at any moment in our lives, we’ve all had those times where we realise we need to shake things up.  Change the course of where we’re going or even just how we’re thinking of a situation, and where we say to ourselves, ‘IM NOT WASTING ANY MORE TIME!’ We’ve all got these big things coming and that we’re working or moving towards, and it’s these dreams the world can never take away from us. It’s what keeps us all going.  With this new album, I really wanted to continue the positive spirit that Cancer Bats have become known for, so having this really fun party song musically, I knew I had to match that with good positives lyrics to round the whole thing out.  

Don’t Trip 

This song was inspired by a motorcycle ride I took through the Canadian Rockies.  Seeing beautiful landscape mixed with the devastation of past wildfires, my mind was wandering when I found myself in one of the worst storms I have ever had to brave on two wheels.  In those situations, the only way out is through, and I had to just hold it together.  In all of the rain and chaos, there was an actual rainbow that appeared in the clouds with arcs of lightning ripping across; I found myself in awe of this natural wonder instead of scared for my life. Naturally, the next day I woke up and had to turn it all into a song.

Bright Eyes Of Gold 

This song is all about those moments we are finding ourselves more and more, realising that this capitalist system we’ve been told to follow is not bringing us the satisfaction we actually desire.  That chasing physical wealth does nothing to fill our empty souls, and we turn to nature for these lessons of what is actually important.  The ideas of community and helping one another to live balanced lives are actually what fills us with a better feeling in the end.  With this song feeling more on the melodic side, it only made sense to invite our amazing friend Chris Cresswell to come and sing.  I was overjoyed when he not only joined in for the chorus but also in the bridge, showing off his chops as not only a melodic crooner but also a seasoned punk with the snarl of a wolf.   

Give Me Dirt 

This song was inspired by a trip to Nepal that I had just returned from when we were going into the studio to record this album. I rode into the mountains with a group of friends on motorcycles and was so blown away by all of the things that I saw and the connection to nature that we experienced along the way.  So many locals imparting their wisdom with every casual conversation and all of that weaving its way into this song.  Almost a revelation flowing onto the paper as I wrote it, to music we had written months and months before, finally feeling connected to these lyrics that came together for me.  This idea of ‘Give Me Dirt’ became bigger still as I started working on the album art, wanting to do something that moved away from computers and connected more to actual tangible art; this title became the mantra of wanting things to be as real as possible. GIVE ME DIRT. We all kept saying over and over, getting ourselves pumped for the new album.  Raw tones of the drums, guitars and bass, the gritty live approach to the recording with Kurt, Zach and Ian, the rough feel of the multimedia art I was building with paint and stencils – it all felt connected to this idea. GIVE ME DIRT!

Long Tooth 

This song is all about living life for the moment and not getting too thrown off worrying about the future.  We can worry all we want, but until we’re actually living it, there’s not much we can actually do.  So this is a good reminder to not take things too seriously and to enjoy each day in the moment.  The chorus itself is all about the realization I have been having lately, that Im at the half way point of my life (yes I’m going to live to be at least 92) and that lots of us tend to try and fix things about our selves, bad habits, strange work styles, and then really thinking that its been working so far and Ive made it this far in my life, that there’s no real point in changing now…I might as well just carry on.  Also on this song, we are joined by our dear friend Brooklyn Doran not only because she has a great voice that fits this song perfectly, but also because she actually embodies this spirit to the fullest.  If you have ever met Brooklyn at the Cancer Bats merch table, you’ll know what I’m saying with her huge smile and eternally cheerful attitude.     

Speed Wizard 

This song was actually an older demo that never made it to the finishing stages of ‘Psychic Jail Break’.  Two of the basic riffs were there, and the vocal lines for the chorus and basic parts of the verse were finished, but the arrangement wasn’t right and thus was put on the shelf for another time.  It was that hook of the chorus, constantly stuck in my head for years after we had last worked on it, that I couldn’t get out.  I knew I had to pick this song back up and finish it off to have on an album.  The song itself is about that journey we’ve all been on in this wild music business, thinking that its all going to work out if we just push through, keep our head down and work through the pain.  Only to realise years later it’s up to us to find that balance and to protect our sanity.  Sadly for lots of people, this pressure and pain can be too much, and it’s often those ways they soothe the pain to push through that become their demise.

Ocean Crash 

All good records need a break-up song, and I luckily had a lot to process from the last few years.  So when I heard that riff that Jaye had written which would become the chorus, I knew I had found a home for those emotions.  Not only is this song about going out to the woods to process things, but it was also written out in those woods.  The lyrics and melody I wrote while driving a dusty back road.  A bridge was out for repair, sending me on a detour up and down some winding side roads around Mount Thom, Nova Scotia. On a clear blue-sky day where you can still see the moon in the sky and slowly making my way past fields of wildflowers, streams winding alongside the road and before I knew it, I had sung my way through the whole part as I was pulling up the grassy road towards my shack.

Prognosis 

This song is all about self-reflection and full-circle moments, being able to step back and take stock of the things we have in our lives.  We can often feel like we are chasing the same things over and over again.  Or looking at patterns in our lives, it can feel like we’ve been making the same mistakes with just different characters along the way.  It’s important I realise to pause and actually take in what we do have and all of the positives that actually surround us.  The bridge of the song was me thinking of a conversation I had with a good friend in Barcelona, when he pointed out how so many of us are living out our lives like actors in a play but staging the same show almost over and over again. I think about this convo a lot and thought it would fit perfectly in a Sun Kill Moon, Mark Kozelek kind of way. 

Positive Grid 

This song, when we were writing the music, felt like a real throwback to early Bats and made me think of doing a ‘PMA TILL I’M DOA’ reference in a way of updating the statement that we are still living that Positive Mental and this far down the road we aren’t even close to slowing down.  I also really thought a lot about what makes for this PMA lifestyle, and it also goes back to the community.  That whole outro speaks to that: regardless of what the world will throw at us, we have each other, and that’s what really matters.

Fools Like You 

What started as a fun thrash song became a lot more when we asked our good friend Efrum Schulz of Death By Stereo to sing on this track. Efrum lives in Southern California and participated in many of the protests against ICE and unfair deportation practices happening in the United States still. Watching what Efrum would share on social media, often images very different from what news outlets would show of the same events, I was inspired to write a song that captured that energy of defiance that I was seeing Efrum and so many others amplifying.  The more we listened to it, the more we knew it needed to close out the album.