Cancer Bats – Hail Destroyer

Uh, Rocker Bats? Quite A Few Pickscreams Bats? Swagger Bats? I don’t know, one of those names – while even shittier than the one they’ve got now – would go a long ways towards actually giving the listener a good idea of what they’re going up against when they put Hail Destroyer in their CD player.

Twelve tracks of cocksure, beefed-up rock riffs strained through a hardcore colander – with plenty of that aforementioned swagger thrown in – all of it layered underneath some pleasantly tissue-shredding vocals. The whole thing sounds kind of like if “heavy” bands like Drowningman or Curl Up And Die decided to go ahead and start trying to ape Motorhead like motherfuckers. The whole thing generally works in the band’s favor, in spite of the fact that they occasionally replace the bravado and confidence with downright corniness and wind up coming across like a third tier nu-metal Marilyn Mason (as evidenced in tunes like “The Devil’s Rocking Chair” and “Let It Pour.”)

Fat guitar tones, great production, confident musicianship and intelligent lyrics – all things that definitely work in this band’s favor. This reviewer’s lurking suspicion that at least one of the guitarists wishes he could’ve played in Quiet Riot at some point – not quite so much in their favor. One of those records that’s just right on the cusp of being a bit too flashy for their own good – there’s just a few too many pickscreams and solos being run through a wah-wah pedal – but in general they’re laying down some pretty fine nails.