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Cancer Bats have announced a new acoustic EP

Volume 2 of You'll Never Break Us: Separation Sessions drops in September to raise money for Canadian water charity…

Cancer Bats have announced a new acoustic EP
Words:
Nick Ruskell

Cancer Bats have announced the second instalment of their unplugged You'll Never Break Us: Separation Sessions EPs, with proceeds from Bandcamp downloads and merch sales being donated to Canadian water charity Water First.

The EP, released on September 15, features five acoustic reworkings of classic Bats Cuts, including Bricks And Mortar, Pneumonia Hawk and Winterpeg, all given a new twist that, as on Volume 1, works surprisingly well.

Watch: Cancer Bats play a tiny bar show

“After we released the first EP the reaction was so positive and great. So many people reached out saying they loved these new versions, that we felt really inspired to work on more songs and try more ideas,” says singer Liam Cormier. “Jaye [Schwarzer, bass/banjo/guitar] led the charge, picking up his guitar and sending tons of ideas for us all to run with. The second round, we had a bit better idea of what we were doing, and especially for me in terms of how to even sing these songs. Everything came together quickly and Vol 2 was tons of fun to make!”

You can hear the first cut, Hail The Acoustic Destroyer – featuring vocals from former Cradle Of Filth keyboardist/singer Lindsay Schoolcraft – right now.

“For Hail The Acoustic Destroyer, we all really wanted to capture the same energy and tension of the song but using a completely different approach from the original,” says Liam. “We were looking more at it being sparse and looming to convey the ‘heaviness’. Once that groundwork was laid, having Lindsay Schoolcraft’s amazing goth-tinged vocals on the track really pushes the song into a new melodic dimension, making the listener forget what the original Hail Destroyer even was.”

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