Give Me Dirt
Cancer Bats
Cancer Bats’ Give Me Dirt is the Canadian band’s eighth studio album: a compact, 11-track blast of hardcore punk, sludge metal, southern-tinged hard rock, and heavy riff worship. Released in August 2026, it was produced by Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks at GodCity Studio, with vocals recorded by Ian Romano. The opening “World Wild Fire Death Race,” featuring Converge’s Nate Newton, sets the tone with a colossal riff and an urgent response to climate catastrophe; from there, songs such as “Stay Stuck,” “Don’t Trip,” “Speed Wizard,” “Positive Grid,” and “Prognosis” lean into the raw, physical force that has long defined the group.
The album’s title points to its central concern: a desire to reconnect with the tangible natural world amid ecological destruction and modern alienation. Liam Cormier wrote the lyrics after a year of travel in rural Nova Scotia, and the record repeatedly contrasts environmental grief, anger, and exhaustion with imagery of land, weather, medicine, and renewal. Guest appearances widen its palette without reducing the impact—Chris Cresswell appears on “Bright Eyes of Gold,” Brooklyn Doran joins the more expansive “Long Tooth,” and Death by Stereo’s Efrem Schulz features on closing track “Fools Like You.” Give Me Dirt is rough, loud, and groove-driven, but it is not simply a return-to-basics hardcore album: its varied tempos, massive doom-leaning riffs, and earthy lyrical focus make it one of Cancer Bats’ more textured records.
Give Me Dirt
Cancer Bats
Cancer Bats’ Give Me Dirt is the Canadian band’s eighth studio album: a compact, 11-track blast of hardcore punk, sludge metal, southern-tinged hard rock, and heavy riff worship. Released in August 2026, it was produced by Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks at GodCity Studio, with vocals recorded by Ian Romano. The opening “World Wild Fire Death Race,” featuring Converge’s Nate Newton, sets the tone with a colossal riff and an urgent response to climate catastrophe; from there, songs such as “Stay Stuck,” “Don’t Trip,” “Speed Wizard,” “Positive Grid,” and “Prognosis” lean into the raw, physical force that has long defined the group.
The album’s title points to its central concern: a desire to reconnect with the tangible natural world amid ecological destruction and modern alienation. Liam Cormier wrote the lyrics after a year of travel in rural Nova Scotia, and the record repeatedly contrasts environmental grief, anger, and exhaustion with imagery of land, weather, medicine, and renewal. Guest appearances widen its palette without reducing the impact—Chris Cresswell appears on “Bright Eyes of Gold,” Brooklyn Doran joins the more expansive “Long Tooth,” and Death by Stereo’s Efrem Schulz features on closing track “Fools Like You.” Give Me Dirt is rough, loud, and groove-driven, but it is not simply a return-to-basics hardcore album: its varied tempos, massive doom-leaning riffs, and earthy lyrical focus make it one of Cancer Bats’ more textured records.