CANCER BATS
Them Frequencies, Blackmail, Torah
03.06.2013, *MIXTAPE 5*- Venue B, Sofia
words by Stiff

No offence, but in some cases three support bands can bee too much. It’s still better than those gigs featuring 7 or even 8 bands before the main one, because there were so many such concerts, but hanging in between and feeling the wind outside the club doing nothing but waiting really sucks sometimes, especially if you are here mainly because of CANCER BATS.

As I just said there’s nothing personal in my conclusion, because all the bands tonight are just great.

KULN’s Boyan and Simo of CENTER present their avantgarde project TORAH which is only drums, a bass guitar and a voicе.

Surprisingly after two songs this is obvious that they don’t need anything else. If they put anything else, that would ruin the intensity of the sound and the depth of the minimalistic approach. The latter is lavish. The level of expression is so strangely high having in mind how few instruments are featured.

BLACKMAIL are on the verge of something promising when some technical crap stops them from bursting out. Fortunately everything is fixed in a few minutes and then we get the rest of the song.

Meanwhile Liam of CANCER BATS is selling merch and signing CDs and vinyl records. There are approximately 80 people inside and outside the club.

This situation improves at the end of  the BLACKMAIL set, like it’s some kind of an answer to the rethric question why there are so few people here tonight. When THEM FREQUENCIES take the stage the crowd is visibly bigger and tenser.

These guys are masters in their game. Dynamic yet chaotic and consecutive yet scattered, THEM FREQUENCIES generously mix their rhythm with disonant elements and have you infected for less than a minute.

Their album 'The Great Wave-Off' was released several months ago and it’s fundamental for their live appearances. This band is tight and tough to break, so it’s quite possible that they are going to take their chances and do some tour to take advantage of the album. This is the main goal, isn’t it?

CANCER BATS jump on stage at 23:05 and start to release tons of energy. It’s important to be aware that these Canadians are not here for a cash grab. Chances are they wouldn’t make any money off this show, but they don’t seem to be affected by that. They are here and now to bang the head that doesn’t bang, to throw a party that is to be remembered.

May be that is why Liam explains that the songs tonight aretheir formal excuse for not coming here earlier. The explanation itself has been served with a lot of four letter words I don’t think I need to share with you. Also I don’t think I need to quote a set list based upon four albums, but focused predominantly on two of them -“Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones” (2010) and “Dead Set On Living” which was released last year.

No need indeed. If you are not here tonight chances are slim that you know what I’m talking about. If you are here you don’t really need to read this report, right? Probably you are rather nursing your bruises.

CANCER BATS stands somewhere in the middle between punk, sludge, hardcore and metal. It stands on massive BLACK SABBATH riffs.

This band could be mistaken for an American one, to be more precise, from the South, more like MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER for example.

This definition is only theoretical though. The results are much more serious that the theory I try to set up right now. There’s a proof for that. It’s the sweat dripping from the walls of Mixtape 5 when this underground DIY manifest is finally over and the crowd disappears in the cold night outside.