Cancer Bats-Dead set on living

Metal Blade
2012

Canada's hardcore act the Cancer Bats have released their forth album. This is actually a mix of hardcore, and various metal elements including some definite blasts of doom. Most of the tracks are fairly heavy and I like how they cut to the chase and get straight into the songs. I also appreciate the raspy, seared through vocals particularly on "The void" and "Road sick". The music flows well away, but sometimes the riffs get buried below the vocals and even the drums in the mix. That's a shame because I think a more even mix would benefit their sound as a whole. Instead it sounds a bit muddy and even messy at times. My biggest problem with this album is that it just didn't stick with me. I listened to it twice, went to write the review and had trouble remembering much about them except the vocals were loud, really loud. So now I am listening to it as I write to be as fair as possible. I still get the definite impression that these songs just are not that memorable. Doesn't mean they are not good because they are decent. However the album is not good enough to make me want to hear it that often.