DETAILS
On the phone from his Toronto home, Liam Cormier, vocalist for Toronto’s visceral post-hardcore metal hybrid Cancer Bats, is half an hour late for his scheduled interview. He apologizes with a laugh, explaining that he set his alarm for 12 midnight instead of 12 noon and was fast asleep after playing a show the night before.
If there’s anything weighing Cormier down, however, it’s certainly not a hangover. Though two of the four Cancer Bats dabble in intoxicants, Cormier and founding guitarist Scott Middleton are drug- and alcohol-free. “I became straight-edge when I was 21, so I actually drank and did stuff like that beforehand,” Cormier explains. “As I was getting older, I was sort of slowing down and realizing I didn’t need to drink to have just as much fun. I also wasn’t so stoked on being hungover and shitty. I’ve been straight-edge for seven years, and I know I’m going to be straight-edge for the rest of my life.”
In 2004, Cormier met with Middleton, who was then the guitarist for Toronto death metal crew At the Mercy of Inspiration. “We’d thrown around a lot of ideas, with Scott being a huge fan of Entombed, Corrosion of Conformity, Down and Pantera,” Cormier says. “I wanted to have a lot of fun punk rock stuff. We were getting psyched on bands like These Arms Are Snakes… that post-hardcore type stuff that had a sludgy feel to it.”
This convergence of tastes spawned the Cancer Bats’ modus operandi, a brutal wall of sound built on Middleton’s antagonizing riffs and an unrelenting rhythm section comprised of drummer Mike Peters and new recruit Jaye Schwarzer on bass. Reminiscent of everything from Refused and Black Flag through Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the sonic diversity attracts fans of all backgrounds. “Because we have a really varied style, young kids that are really into punk rock or skate punk can hear the NOFX in us,” Cormier explains. “At the same time, there’s guys who are wearing full-on metal shirts and can hear black metal coming through the guitar parts.”
Four years and two albums later, a lot has changed for the band. In 2006, their debut album, Birthing the Giant was embraced by the Canadian music industry, and the Bats were afforded the ability to pursue music for a living. After countless tours, they released Hail Destroyer to even higher acclaim last year, and have since reaped the benefits of frequent stops on MuchLoud and MTV Canada.
One thing they’ve certainly learned the hard way is that the U.S. is a tough market to crack. Despite some memorable tours with big names like Rise Against and Bleeding Through, among others, the band do not have the same mass appeal as at home. “Not only are things going good in Canada, but in England things are going awesome, Europe is coming around, and we went to Australia and that went good,” Cormier explains. “So it’s funny to go to the U.S. and think ‘Oh yeah, at least the rest of the world cares about our band.’”
Still, being loved at home is certainly not a bad thing. The band have toured Canada so many times that hotels are no longer an issue — they just kick it at friends’ houses. Some of their favourite friends live in Calgary.
“We love going to the Ship and Anchor and cruising 17th Avenue,” Cormier says. “For us, we’re more excited to go to Calgary than we are to go to Vancouver. People are like ‘Vancouver’s so fucking awesome!’ and it’s like, ‘Yeah, but you’ve got to drive over the mountains, and there’s a lot of crackheads.’ We’re just more stoked on Calgary.”
With so much love for the city, the real question is if Cancer Bats have anything bad to say. “Well, I’ll say this,” he confesses. “The prices at Tubby Dog are a little high. That’s the one thing I would change about Calgary.”
