Cancer Bats

Proving that loud, gritty, and ranting punk rock is still alive and thrashing in Canada, Toronto's Cancer Bats employ a punishing blend of hardcore punk, metalcore, Southern rock, and sludge metal. Citing a wide berth of musical inspirations including Black Flag, Down, Led Zeppelin, Entombed, and Black Sabbath -- they have toured Canada as a Sabbath cover band under the moniker Bat Sabbath -- they emerged in 2006 with the hard-hitting Birthing the Giant. They caught fire in the early 2010s, earning Juno Award nominations for 2011's Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones and 2013's Dead Set on Living, and have remained at the forefront of the Canadian hardcore scene with subsequent efforts like The Spark That Moves (2018) and Psychic Jailbreak (2022).