CANCER BATS
THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON
Hail Destroyer gets a riotous 10th birthday party
TonighT marks The
final night of a four-night residency for Cancer Bats, who have taken refuge in The Underworld to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their second, breakthrough album, Hail Destroyer. Fittingly, the place goes off like an out-of-control house party. Kicking straight into their cover of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage, with frontman Liam Cormier prowling about the stage like a wolf, there’s no sign that their week of partying has left any lasting damage. Crowdsurfers surge forwards as they dive straight into a full-album run-through of that second LP, its title track still holding up as one of modern heavy metal’s finest tracks. Elsewhere, Sorceress hits harder than ever, each of its multiple breakdowns slowed down to a steam-train chug, while Lucifer’s Rocking Chair sees one enterprising fan stagedive, before riding the crowd all the way to the back of the room, and right back to the front again. Pray For Darkness, meanwhile, finds Liam demanding “the biggest fucking circlepit in the history of The Underworld” – a request that’s easily met, and quickly topped. Friends and family of the band soon begin snatching mics and leaping on heads from the side of the stage, with the whole thing threatening to tip over into pandemonium by the time a snarling Pneumonia Hawk appears. Then, after a brief, whispered deliberation at the back of the stage, all shit is lost as Hail Destroyer is whipped out once more for a final, ass-kicking run-through: proof, were it needed, that Cancer
Bats are masters of metal mayhem.