Cancer Bats are flapping free and flying high again.
In addition to hitting the road this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of debut LP Birthing the Giant, the sludge-glommed Canadian hardcore lifers have announced plans to issue a new album called Give Me Dirt, which they’re teasing through a working-class crusher called “Stay Stuck.”
The upcoming LP is their first since 2022’s Psychic Jailbreak, and will arrive in full through a new partnership between the band’s Bat Skull imprint and Marshall Records, run by the venerated titular amp makers.
With “Stay Stuck,” Cancer Bats lean into all sides of their style, from mud-flingin’ stomp mosh sections to weed-packed stoner-metal riffage, all of which flying beneath vocalist Liam Cormier’s grizzled but super posi and carpe diem-themed lyrics (“Don’t take a page from a dead mans book / Just write your chapter one line at a time”). He seizes the day with a conclusive yell of “You can pry my dreams out from my cold dead hand.”
“‘Stay Stuck’ was such a fun song for us to write. It was one of the first songs that we finished while working on the new record, and we really all felt like we had tapped into the classic Cancer Bats bouncy fun element we’ve had in songs since the beginning,” he explains in a statement of its origins.
“The lyrics explore the idea that, at any age or moment in life, we all reach a point where we realize something has to change,” he adds. “Maybe it’s the path we’re on, or just the way we see things, but there’s that instant where we say to ourselves, I’M NOT WASTING ANY MORE TIME!
“We’re all moving towards something bigger, chasing goals and dreams that the world can’t take away from us. That’s what keeps us going.”
Up above, you’ll find a music video for “Stay Stuck” that mixes workyard performance footage with scenes of Cancer Bats undertaking a series of tasks — from delivering pizzas, to riding motorbikes around the gravel pit, to sucking back darts and crushing cups of Timmies on their break.
Cancer Bats’ Give Me Dirt sees release August 8th, and can be pre-ordered and pre-saved here. The album also features guest appearances from Converge/Cave In member Nate Newton, Death by Stereo’s Efrem Schulz, the Flatliners’ Chris Creswell and more.
The band recently wrapped a North American anniversary tour behind Birthing the Giant, but press on to celebrate more than 20 years of “Bat Madness” for European spring and summer dates as both Cancer Bats and their cover band, Bat Sabbath. Those details are here.
Give Me Dirt tracklisting:
World Wild Fire Death Race (Feat. Nate Newton)
Stay Stuck
Don’t Trip
Bright Eyes Of Gold (Feat. Chris Creswell)
Give Me Dirt
Long Tooth (Feat. Brooklyn Doran)
Speed Wizard
Ocean Crash
Positive Grid
Prognosis
Fool Like You (Feat. Efrem Schulz)