Combining the energy and attitude of hardcore with the chugging weight of Southern metal, Cancer Bats have been touring rigorously since their formation and subsequent release of debut album Birthing the Giant alongside bands such as Rise Against, Risky Business and Gallows in Canada, the US and Europe. With a two-month road trip planned to begin in May to capitalize on the release of follow-up LP Hail Destroyer, the band won’t be stopping anytime soon. EYE WEEKLY asked vocalist Liam Cormier — while riding with his family to his grandfather’s 80th birthday — how the band keeps it together amid the highs and lows of the touring grind. His reply? Extreme stoked-itude, even in the face of adversity.

I hear you guys are generally pretty stoked.
I feel like we’re a very stoked band.  I’d say we’re ultimately positive. We have a song on the new record that’s all about that [“PMA ’Til I’m DOA”]. Positive Mental Attitude ’til I’m Dead On Arrival. The chorus goes: ‘Every day I’m alive is the best day of my life,’ and I’m serious. I’ve been ‘posi’ since the day I was born.

I was a happy baby. I was breastfed, I was a healthy eater.  That’s how my family’s always been. If you have a flat tire in the middle of winter, and you’re stuck on the highway, it’s better to laugh about it and eat Werther’s with friends than to get pissed off at the tire.

Did you have fun touring Europe with Rise Against?
If we didn’t have England and Europe, if all we did was that US touring, I think our band would have broken up by now. I feel like when we go over there [they’re excited]. Maybe it’s because there are fewer bands from there, that to find bands, they look to other places without a bias. Whereas if you’re from the US, you don’t need to look anywhere else.

How was your most recent Canada/US tour?
We had a bunch of shit go down before driving from Vancouver to Austin. We got robbed right before we left, in Victoria, while we were playing. They only stole our bags. They left iPods, but they stole my bag of clothes. Such a fuckin’ burn. There are crackheads in Victoria exploiting my extensive American Apparel underwear collection.

Are you stoked about Hail Destroyer?
We’re really happy with it — we didn’t really make the record we [felt we sounded like] last time, but with this we came in knowing what we were doing a bit more, had a frame of reference and pushed each other to do the best we could.

Which extreme sport would you rather partake in: mountaintop paintball or bungee jumping over shark-infested waters?
Probably mountaintop paintball, because all of us like guns and love the mountains. Bungee jumping is pretty weak — you don’t even jump, you just fall.

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