It has been a while since Toronto metal/ rock band the Cancer Bats have rocked Lethbridge.
But they will be returning to tear apart Average Joes, Oct. 5.
“The last time we were there, I think was summer of 2010. We played a giant pool hall and we weren’t sure t what to expect. But it was awesome,” enthused frontman Liam Cormier from a tour stop in Michigan.
“This time we’ll be playing a full hour of Cancer Bats from all four of our albums and a full hour of Bat Sabbath. So we can’t wait to come back,” he said.
Bat Sabbath is the Cancer Bats’ Black Sabbath playing alter ego.
“ We were asked to do a set of Black Sabbath covers at a festival, and we thought it was a great idea. Plus it was an extra set,” he said adding this will be the first time they have brought Bat Sabbath out west.
“We’ve done it in Ontario and Quebec and Europe, but we haven’t toured it out west, he said.
“I’m really pumped about it. It’s going to be rad,” he said.
“It’s definitely the Cancer Bats playing Black Sabbath rather than about dressing up and doing a tribute,” he said.
They recorded four of their Bat Sabbath songs ( War Pigs, Iron Man, NIB, Into The Void and Children of the Grave) and added them to the reissue of their last album ‘Dead Set on Living.’
“ The album has been out for 18 months, so this will be the last tour in support of it,” he said.
“It has gone over very well. It’s great to have people still pumped and excited about it,” he said adding when they finish the tour they will begin work on the next album.
“ It’s great to finish our tour in Canada on a high note and go into the studio all pumped up. We all have ideas, but we don’t[t do anything with them until we]re all together and shape them out. But we don’t have anything figured out yet,” he continued.
They have spent much of the past 18 months on the road, mostly in Europe.
“It’s been since 2004 or 2005 when we decided to take this serious to it’s hard to believe that eight years later we‘re playing all of these crazy places like greece and Bulgaria and they know all the words to our songs, though they don't speak English and you can’t really have a conversation with them. there is such a huge metal scene over there. It’s crazy,” he enthused.
They are beginning the current leg of the touring in the United States, mostly in states along the Canadian border like Illinois, New York and Michigan.
“It’s the first day of the tour and it will be fun to play a different show. We are definitely not as big in the United States, so it will be nice to get worked up and play a few low key shows before we start to have some wild nights in Canada,” he said.
“ We just finished a tour with a Norwegian band called Kvelertak. They have a similar sound to us except they sing everything completely in Norwegian. So it was nice to tour when we both feel so out of place.
Tickets cost $20 for the show, which begins at approximately 9 p.m.
