If I were in Cancer Bats the only thing I’d really be scared to death about is my band’s inability to fit clearly into any one scene. But that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t be too scared of rocking because my band would do that really fucking well, and my band’s new track “Scared to Death” would be no exception.

Cancer Bats’ 2008 album Hail Destroyer was an aggressive, punchy, ass-kicking affair that I listened to more than any “hardcore” record in recent memory. I put hardcore in quotes because it’s hard to classify Cancer Bats as straight up hardcore, though their roots are clearly on display; their riffs are too metallified, their chord voicings too complex, they play guitar solos and they use way too many pinched harmonics to be lumped in with a lot of the bands our own Gary Suarez has been writing about lately. But it really doesn’t matter what the fuck you call Cancer Bats because they kick ass.

Cancer Bats release a digital EP called Sabotage on March 1st. I’m definitely psyched for this one. Look for them on tour soon with a bunch of bands that don’t sound anything like them and that you don’t like at all.

-VN