I’ve had a soft spot for Cancer Bats since high school, watching them open many Alexisonfire shows in Toronto. I’ve endured the dirty looks received for wearing a shirt with “cancer” written on it, and for many other people their first two albums are too much to handle. The band has always been able to produce a wall of noise – like any good hardcore punk band should – and sometimes that wall isn’t welcoming.

Their latest album Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones picks up where they left off with 2008’s Hail Destroyer. As usual, lead singer Liam Cormier alternates between softer and “screamier” singing styles, which is reminiscent of Tim McIllrath of Rise Against. On this album, the band has let their punk influence shine through with rawer songs with less of a groove like “Sleep This Away,” “Dead Wrong,” and “We Are The Undead.”

Standout tracks include “Scared to Death,” which has got a bit of a Queens of the Stone Age sound to it, and “Trust No One,” which is a fast, heavy song with a solid groove and enough changes to keep it interesting until the end. There’s a surprise cover of The Beastie Boys’s hit “Sabotage” as the last track on the album, which is a little ham-handed but still novel; hardcore Beastie fans may object, but they’re also not very likely to be listening to a Cancer Bats album. Bear, Mayors, Scraps and Bones is Cancer Bats sticking to what they know, which is the same sound I’ve liked from the start.