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Never too heavy

Cancer Bats bring hardcore sound back to Whistler, with the help of Black Lungs and Johnny Truant
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Bats Outta... Southern Ontario? Check out the hardcore metal stylings of the Cancer Bats in Whistler next weekend

Who: Cancer Bats with Black Lungs, Johnny Truant

When: Friday, Sept. 26, doors at 9 p.m.

Where: Garfinkel’s

Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door

It’s hard not to raise an eyebrow when you come across a band dubbed Cancer Bats.

With Liam Cormier on vocals, Scott Middleton on guitar, Jaye Schwarzer on bass, and Mike Peters on drums, rest assured that this hardcore metal group isn’t looking to offend anyone, at least not with their name. If you can’t handle their heavy style and sound, that’s another story.

“Basically, that came around even before we started the band,” Cormier explained. “I was just trying to think of good, kind of original band names, so I was just combining diseases and animals as a joke, and was like putting those together.”

While the band eventually settled on Cancer Bats, the moniker Pneumonia Hawk almost stuck.

“I like how it made me think of a B horror movie, being attacked by a cancerous bat,” he said.

Cormier and the rest of the band members didn’t really give much thought to their name, until some people in the Australian music industry pointed out that, down under, it’s popular slang for cigarettes.

“When we first were trying to shop around our record in Australia, they were like, ‘there’s no way we’re putting out a band called Cancer Bats!’” Cormier recalled with a laugh, “Then they actually listened to the record.”

Cormier and Middleton are the founding members of the band, which they formed back in 2004.

The band actually started out as a part-time project, but it began to grow and get really positive feedback from friends and family. By the end of the year, Cormier and Middleton decided to make it a full-time endeavour.

Peters joined very shortly afterwards, while Schwarzer came on board last November, replacing Andrew McCracken, one of Cormier’s good friends who decided to focus on his career in graphic design, full-time.

“It was funny, actually. Mike reached out to me because he wanted to move out of Winnipeg,” Cormier explained. “I literally got the email and was like, ‘fuck, this rules!’ and then called him on the phone and was like, ‘when can you move to Toronto?’”

Things fell into place pretty quickly after the band got together, as they were all pretty serious about making music full-time. They put out their self-released demo in January 2005. From there, they continued to gain momentum.

“Things were going really quickly, which was awesome,” Cormier said.

Earlier this week, Cormier and the crew were driving across Canada to start out a west coast tour promoting their new album “Hail Destroyer,” which they released in April.

All of the members of Cancer Bats knew each other pretty well from the hardcore scene in Southern Ontario, though Peters is better acquainted with west coast hardcore being from the Winnipeg area. Also, because he’s from another part of the country with a slightly different hardcore scene, his musical tastes — punk rock and different types of hardcore — are a bit different from the rest.

“We got there from different paths,” Cormier explained.

But all of the members basically share the same roots, though Middleton was more into metal, while the other three got into the scene through skate culture.

Over the past four years, particularly after they released their first full-length “Birthing The Giant,” album on June 6, 2006 — the auspicious date 6/6/6 was a very intentional selection for the release date — the band began honing their identity. Since then, they’ve definitely established a solid group dynamic, and as a result their music has taken on a heavier, more confident sound.

“We kind of got into our groove of being like, ‘yeah, this is how we want these songs to sound. This is how we want to play,’” Cormier reflected, “Even the older songs started becoming heavier, and I started yelling more over top of them, and it was like I was developing my voice more, and Mike was developing his drum parts, and Scott was developing guitar talents, and all that was coming along.”

When it finally came time to start working on their second full length album “Hail Destroyer,” the band knew its own sound much better.

“With this record, we have definitely realized that we are a heavier band,” Cormier said, adding that they’ve received no requests to lighten up their sound.

And writing their music is a group effort.

“No one person finishes a song, it’s sort of like everybody getting their own ideas across and everybody coming together,” Cormier explained. “I like how it works – it’s more of a collective.”

The band has been working hard at their music since day one; when they were offered tours, they took about half an hour to make a decision. They gave up jobs, moved to new cities, and committed themselves to their music.

“We were just so hungry for it, and I think that’s why things went so quickly for us – we were literally up for taking any opportunity that came our way,” Cormier said.

The dedication to their music has definitely started to pay off. Cancer Bats have played with some pretty big names like Comeback Kid, NOFX, Silverstein, they’ve toured internationally, and they are currently looking into heading to Japan next year. All these experiences have exceeded their expectations.

“Going to Australia last year was a huge mind blow, because that was something that we never expected to do,” said Cormier. “When we were actually on the plane and we were flying out, and I was like, ‘there are people in this country that feel like it’s a good idea to give us money to come and play shows!’”

Now, they’re focusing on touring, but their minds are already turning to the studio, and they’re getting ready to work on their next album early next year. They’re set to play with Black Lungs and Johnny Truant here in Whistler next weekend, and Cormier said they’re definitely looking forward to the gig.

“One thing I love about Whistler is how the shows are always guaranteed to be a wild party,” he said. “It’s never a standstill kind of crowd.”