Cancer Bats - Searching For Zero

It’s been almost a decade since Cancer Bats first came snarling into the hardcore punk scene, with raw voices and blood still fresh on their knuckles. Since then, they’ve tread many paths – whether under their current moniker or in the guise of their Black Sabbath tribute band Bat Sabbath – and covered much ground. It’s with their fifth album, ‘Searching For Zero’, that the quartet attempt to piece together their past – from musical styles to personal hardships - and, to some degree, pull it off.

What’s clear from the outset is that their promise of a more ‘bare bones’ sounding record has been realised. At times, their stripped-back approach works explosively, with tracks like ‘Arsenic In The Year Of The Snake’ and ‘All Hail’ providing the punch in the throat that the band have been so good at throwing previously. During moments, though, it seems to stretch them too thin, with ‘Beelzebub’ sounding uncomfortably laboured by the end of its four minutes.