Liam Cormier Ranks Cancer Bats’ 5 Best Songs │ Exclaim!

For Toronto hellraisers Cancer Bats, a song doesn’t really come alive until it’s played on stage — that’s why they’re hitting the road this month in order to get themselves ready to work on their next album.

In anticipation of those shows, vocalist Liam Cormier took Exclaim! on a chronological journey through his five favourite songs from the band’s catalogue. He made his picks “in a more nostalgic kind of way, where we had to write each one to lead into the next.”

He added, “All of these songs will be blasted live at full sweat-soaked volume on our upcoming tour. All of these songs are great to listen to from the safety of your headphones, but the real joy is when we are all packed in together, rocking out and sweating and spitting on each other in a mix of euphoric destruction — that is the true Cancer Bats experience. See you soon!”

“Shillelagh”
Birthing the Giant (2006)

To me, this is the song that kicked everything off. It was the 4th song we wrote as a band, and it was the one that people really got behind. The big “HELL YEAH” at the start was the first lyric people started singing along to, where it really felt like we were onto something.

“Hail Destroyer”
Hail Destroyer (2008)

We had hit the ground running with Birthing the Giant and were touring all over the world. When It came time to start working on a new album, I was really reflecting on how we had abandoned everything to just tour nonstop, living in our van and sleeping on people’s floors, trying to play 300 shows a year. The whole thing was very humbling and really brought a lot of gratitude in the process. I wrote these lyrics while really thinking of those first two years of touring, and had most of them down before the music had been written. When Mikey Scott and I started jamming, this was one of the first songs we had, and the riff felt perfect for that Hail Destroyer concept.

“Bricks and Mortar”
Dead Set on Living (2012)

This song is off our fourth album, Dead Set on Living, and it’s my favourite song on that album. When we were working on new ideas for the record, we were really conscious of having a bouncy party kind of vibe that I felt we had missed on our previous album — something that gets the crowd jumping and rowdy and has some really positive lyrics. The whole theme was how inspired I was by all of my friends opening cool businesses and being creative and forging their own way in the world. The music video was an homage to all those businesses we would hang out at in Toronto when we were home. Fun fact: this music video was made by two of the guys in July Talk

“Winterpeg”
The Spark That Moves (2018)

Its no secret that Cancer Bats love Winnipeg. Our drummer Mikey is from there and moved back in 2014, and I was actually born there. In 2018, we recorded The Spark That Moves there, and we wanted to pay tribute to what I consider the most metal city in Canada. Also a very cool thing about this song is we were able to have Winnipeg legend Chris Hannah of Propaghandi sing the bridge verse, which is beyond cool for us as fans who grew up on his band.

“Lonely Bong”
Psychic Jailbreak (2022)

This song was a real fun personal one for me. I was thinking a lot on the years of touring we had done and all the fun stories, and also asking the question “Why cant I ever sit still?” The question remains, but the urge to travel the world with my friends will be eternally in my blood — just like a wolf must howl into the night sky.