Cancer Bats released new album Give Me Dirt on August 7 and it’s a good album.
It opens with a nice riff and drum intro to World Wide Fire Death Race, which also has the first of four guest appearances, this one being Nate Newton.
The drum fills in Stay Stuck are really good and I love the hook of ‘you can pry my dreams out from my cold, dead hands’ at the end.
Chris Cresswell of The Flatliners features on Bright Eyes of Gold, a track focused on lessons from plants, sunlight and the natural world. I have to be honest but Cresswell didn’t have the same impact on the track that Newton had at the start of the album. It felt like Newton was needed on the record, but Cresswell was just there, blending in well with the band but probably a bit too well.
Long Tooth features Brooklyn Doran and focuses on a spiritual journey. It’s a good song and one that I connected with more than the others. It has a proper head bobbing heavy melody to it too.
There’s a theme of nature running throughout the album, and another theme is the consistently similar drum riffs to open not of the tracks.
It’s an album full of sick grooves and harsh vocals that capture the angst of the lyrics.
The band have said this is the sound they have been working to throughout their career and I have to say it is the strongest record they’ve produced.