{"id":76150,"date":"2018-11-02T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=76150"},"modified":"2019-02-27T12:44:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T12:44:59","slug":"feature-cancer-11-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-cancer-11-18\/","title":{"rendered":"CANCER – Crimes So Evil (November 2018) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CANCER – Crimes So Evil<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cancer (l-r): Ian Buchanan, John Walker and Carl Stokes<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nTelford, England-based death metal group Cancer announced their reformation on September 12th, 2013, having disbanded for the second time during 2006. Cancer existed from 1987 until 1996 during their inaugural foray, with their sophomore jaunt lasting from 2003 until 2006. Five full-lengths were issued during those stints, namely; To The Gory End<\/em> (1990), Death Shall Rise<\/em> (1991), The Sins Of Mankind<\/em> (1993), Black Faith<\/em> (1995), and Spirit In Flames<\/em> (2005). Interest in the catalogue from Cyclone Empire initiated Cancer\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to put a re-release out of the first three albums, which we decided to go for,\u201d remembers Ian Buchanan, bassist for Cancer. \u201cWe thought that that was a good idea, and then we kind of just talked about the possibility of maybe getting out and doing some shows to promote the old stuff again, and then gradually it just solidified into a happening thing, really. So yeah, it was initially to promote those re-releases.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rhythmist\u2019s involvement did not extend to the second formation, though he distinctly remembers the initial disbandment. \u201cThat\u2019s a difficult question,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt\u2019s a long time ago, but yeah. I think that there were a lot of pressures around that were difficult for everyone to kind of get along with, really. It was working with a major label, and all that kind of stuff. I guess it just didn\u2019t really chime well with us as people, that kind of approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourth jaunt Black Faith<\/em> had undergone release during 1995 via East West. \u201cI thought that Black Faith<\/em> was a fantastic album,\u201d Ian chuckles. \u201cI loved it; I thought that it was absolutely brilliant, but unfortunately not many other people did. That\u2019s the way it goes, I suppose. The thing is, it was a big departure from what we had done previously. You can understand people who were into the first two albums in particular, why they wouldn\u2019t necessarily be into Black Faith<\/em>. You can also see how anyone who may have gotten into Black Faith<\/em> \u2013 who may have been into that style \u2013 would probably have not listened to it or given it a chance, because of knowing about the history of the band. I think we got caught out on both sides, really. We perhaps alienated some of the original fans, but without being able to bring a new people in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black Faith<\/em> arguably caught long-time fans off guard, as it were. \u201cDo you know what?,\u201d the four-stringer begins. \u201cI think the whole thing with Black Faith<\/em> was something we really wanted to do. We were listening to a lot of different music at the time, a very wide range. Not just metal, but kind of all genres. Perhaps not country and western, but most kinds of music (laughs). I guess it just felt right for us to try to explore that kind of thing. I suppose looking back on it, it might\u2019ve been better if we hadn\u2019t done it as a Cancer album (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the course of the 1990s, a multitude of bands took departures courtesy of their studio output. \u201cThat\u2019s true, yeah,\u201d Ian replies. \u201cThere was quite a lot. There was a lot of experimenting going on at the time, which was good. Yeah though, it worked for some, but not so much for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cyclone Empire\u2019s wish to re-release Cancer\u2019s initial brace of studio fare initiated the 2013 formation. Five years later in November 2018, sixth studio affair Shadow Gripped<\/em><\/a> saw the light of day through Peaceville Records. \u201cThe way things are with us now, John\u2019s over in Spain, so he comes up with riffs,\u201d the musician informs. \u201cWhen we do get together, which is basically the times when we do the gigs and all that, we talk through ideas and just bounce the riffs that he\u2019s writing backwards and forwards. Eventually, he gets something like a song together, and then… I don\u2019t know, really. It\u2019s been a bit weird with him, really, because the way we\u2019ve done it, he sends stuff over and then we do our thing to it. It\u2019s been a strange one, but I think it\u2019s worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though vocalist \/ guitarist John Walker authors the initial riffs, Cancer\u2019s fellow members in Ian and drummer Carl Stokes additionally contribute. \u201cWe all kind of contribute, but it starts with the riffs,\u201d he stresses.<\/p>\n

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Cancer 1991 (l-r): Ian Buchanan, Carl Stokes, John Walker (front) and James
Murphy<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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In past times, penning material differed somewhat. \u201cIt\u2019s always started with the riffs,\u201d the performer judges. \u201cIn the old days, we\u2019d be in the rehearsal rooms together, and kind of just bouncing the ideas around. We kind of help with structures, and getting stuff honed down into something that\u2019s hopefully a decent song. It\u2019s weird, because it\u2019s kind of different. It\u2019s not that different, though (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow Gripped<\/em> harbours traits with earlier Cancer compositions. \u201cIt\u2019s more in the vein of the first two or three albums, stylistically,\u201d Ian critiques. \u201cPersonally, I like it. I think it compares favourably with anything that the band\u2019s done, but yeah, definitely it\u2019s in that older style \u2013 with a return to the original sound. The thing is, we\u2019re a three-piece now. We\u2019ve gone back to the original three-piece line-up, so there\u2019s something quite natural about taking the music back to the kind of way we felt, and the kind of vibe we had back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cancer\u2019s temporary transformation into a quartet occurred during the making of Cancer\u2019s second offering. \u201cWhat happened there was we were in Morrisound Studios (in Tampa, Florida), and we\u2019d recorded the album Death Shall Rise<\/em>,\u201d the bassist recalls. \u201cWe\u2019d pretty much got it all done, and then we met James Murphy in the studio. He came over to say \u2018Hi\u2019, because it was that kind of place was Morrisound. There were always people popping in from Deicide, or Obituary, and these kinds of guys. So, he popped in and it was cool. <\/p>\n

\u201cScott Burns said to ask him to do a guest solo on one of the songs, which we did. It kind of developed from there, really. He seemed pretty keen on getting into a band, and it just progressed where we ended up getting him to do leads on most of the songs, actually. The funny thing of course was that it was all written as a three-piece band, that album, and then kind of expanded at the last minute into the four-piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reforming in 2013, Cancer was briefly a four-piece once more. \u201cVery briefly, yeah,\u201d Ian confirms. \u201cOf course it was, yeah… We had Barry (Savage, guitars) back in the band… Yeah, that\u2019s right. We did a local warm-up, and we did a gig in Holland at the Netherlands Deathfest. It got a bit complicated. We had a trip coming up to America. To be honest, the reasons that he couldn\u2019t come were personal, so I can\u2019t go into that. When he couldn\u2019t carry on \u2013 for his personal reasons \u2013 at that point, we were confronted with that situation of \u2018What do we do? Do we get somebody else in to fill his place?\u2019 Then we just kind of went \u2018You know what? We were a three-piece originally. Let\u2019s do it,\u2019 though, and it felt really good. We had a rehearsal as a three-piece, and it just felt like the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dynamic as part of a trio differs to that of a quartet. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit more straightforward,\u201d the rhythmist figures. \u201cEverybody in the band has got a bit more space to do their thing, really. There\u2019s also that thing that you\u2019ve got a challenge with a three-piece of creating the big sound, and it\u2019s nice. It\u2019s nice to have a go at doing that; it\u2019s nice to get the three-piece sound to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That straightforward vibe lends itself to early Cancer outings. \u201cThe early records were kind of classic old school death metal, really, but with a kind of heavy metal vibe as well,\u201d Ian reckons. \u201cI think we had a little bit of our own elements that were more heavy metal, but the thing that we were into was creating straightforward, old school classic death metal, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow Gripped<\/em>\u2019s lyrical content shares common hallmarks. \u201cPretty much the whole album, it\u2019s not by any means a concept album, but there is an idea that ties it all together,\u201d the four-stringer highlights. \u201cThat\u2019s the idea of the dark side of the personality, the shadow side that\u2019s in everybody, and kind of opening up to the idea of understanding that that\u2019s there. There\u2019s a lot of the classic Cancer; you\u2019ve got your serial killers, your Exorcist<\/em> reference (1973), and you\u2019ve got maybe a little bit of looking at abuse and that side of things. It\u2019s subjects that we would\u2019ve been covering throughout the whole of the band\u2019s career, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cancer 1993 (l-r): Barry Savage, Ian Buchanan, John Walker and Carl Stokes<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Drum and bass parts were recorded at Foel Studios in Llanfair Caereinion, Welshpool, Wales. \u201cFoel was a studio that we knew, anyway,\u201d Ian shares. \u201cI know Carl\u2019s (Stokes, drums) been there a few times, because he used to know the old owner. Simon Efteme worked there in the past, so it was a place that we knew we would have no trouble getting the job done. First of all, we recorded the drums there, we recorded the bass, and then sent the drum tracks over to John. Then he recorded the guitars and the vocals in Spain, and then sent all of that back again (laughs). It\u2019s great you can do that sort of thing these days. It\u2019s all on the internet and sent over, and then mixed with Simon Eftemie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musician feels working with Simon Eftemie is a positive experience. \u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cI like working with Simon, because he knows how to get the job done and we\u2019ve worked with him before. He makes it easy on you. I feel for me personally, he makes the job easy. Plus, he knows the score with getting that kind of raw, nothing overly complicated. Just what it\u2019s about; it\u2019s capturing the sound of the band, the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cancer famously employed Scott Burns to helm production for the first two full-lengths, so to compare and contrast the pair is an inevitable undertaking. \u201cWell, of course there are differences, but Scott was kind of like that as well,\u201d Ian concludes. \u201cHe just captured the band as it was. No messing about with Scott. I think Simon perhaps gets a bit more involved with what you\u2019re doing, and getting your performance. He\u2019ll help with your performance in terms of encouraging you when things aren\u2019t quite up to scratch. Scott Burns was a bit more laid-back. He was good, though. It was great fun working with him. You can imagine back in the day, working with someone like that \u2013 he had just recorded the Obituary album. That was an exciting time, going and meeting Scott.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Burns was the \u201cgo-to\u201d guy within the death metal realm, at that time during the early 90s. \u201cOh God, yeah,\u201d the entertainer seconds. \u201cWe brought him over here, and he froze his ass off. We couldn\u2019t afford to record the first album in Morrisound, so we did it in Wales (at Loco Studios in Usk) and it was bloody freezing. I think it was December, or something like that. It was the winter; I remember it was frosty, and he was horrified by the temperatures (laughs). We went over there for the second one. The first one was recorded in Wales, mixed in Morrisound, and then the second one was all done in Morrisound.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 1988 Cancer demo sported production from Stevie Young, nephew of late AC\/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm. Stevie now occupies said position in AC\/DC, Malcolm having retired in 2014 for health reasons. \u201cWhat happened there was we were wanting to do a demo, and we were just looking around for studios,\u201d Ian divulges. \u201cA mate of ours had worked at this place. He had done some recording at a place in Birmingham called Pits, which was up about three flights of stairs, and had bloody holes in the boards and everything. It was a bloody death trap, actually (laughs). <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the top of these three flights of stairs, there was a little studio. It was a real rough and ready place, but he told us to go up there and see what they could do for us. We went up, and took a load of beer up with us. They liked that; they were into the idea of a band turning up with loads of drinks. Yeah, it turned out that Steve Young was one of the people who was running the place. It was pretty weird, really, but I think we were so young that we just took it… Not for granted, obviously. We thought of just getting on with it, and having a laugh with the guys. It was good; it was pretty good fun, that little session.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, one wonders what thoughts Stevie Young held in relation to Cancer\u2019s overall sound and style. \u201cThis was the funny thing,\u201d the bassist notes. \u201cAt one point, he was really puzzled by it. He was like \u2018God… Real raucous\u2019 (laughs). He actually phoned up a friend of his to come and help with a bit of the sound, so this guy turned up who Steve knew was working on heavier stuff. That was Mick Hughes. He turned up and helped starting to tweak the amps, and helped getting the sound and stuff. Steve was like \u2018God, this is so heavy.\u2019 That was mental, really. We didn\u2019t really know who this guy was. Obviously, once we knew who he was, we realised that he was the soundman working for Metallica. Yeah though, you don\u2019t expect that to happen, really. It was a weird situation, but it was good. We did four days; we did three days rehearsing it and a day recording, if I remember right. They had a rehearsal room, and then a studio just off of the side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to the topic of Shadow Gripped<\/em>, Ian wished to capture his live sound within a studio setting. \u201cMakes a change to be asked about the bass,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBasically, the bass was just a matter of capturing the sound that I was using live, really. I\u2019ve got this really old Boss, kind of multi-effects thing \u2013 it\u2019s really simple. It\u2019s not electronic; it\u2019s one of these old analogue things, which is just four foot switches in a row. So, I\u2019ve got that, and that\u2019s how I get my sound live. We got the sound in the studio the same way. Obviously, you\u2019ve got more options in the studio; you can tweak things and add extra layers into the sound to thicken it or whatever, but yeah. It\u2019s pretty much just capturing the moment and the live sound, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloodbath guitarist Anders Nystr\u00f6m makes a guest appearance on the track \u2018Ballcutter\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s one of them things, because obviously we\u2019ve gotten to know the guys from Bloodbath,\u201d the rhythmist tells. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you know, but they got the name of the band from one of our tracks (from To The Gory End<\/em>), which is pretty cool for a band of that kind of stature to acknowledge. When they were young, they were fans of what we were doing which was was pretty good. That kind of meant that when we met them, we had a chance to connect and be quite friendly. Then also being on Peaceville Records, it was kind of easy to get it done and get it organised. Also, I don\u2019t know if you know, but John did some vocals on one of the new Bloodbath tracks \u2013 \u2018Bloodicide\u2019 (from October 2018\u2019s The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn<\/em>). It was one of them, kind of mutual. It was easy to do and it was mutual, and everyone was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shadow Gripped<\/em>\u2019s cover artwork reflects its lyrical meanderings. \u201cWe kind of left it to the guy,\u201d Ian confesses. \u201cHe\u2019s the guy at the label, and we gave him a kind of brief round-up of the sort of lyrical content and the idea of the shadow side and all that. I think Carl had an input on that, with the kind of symbolism and all that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A full-length from Cancer wasn\u2019t a certainty in 2018, but has now seen the light of day. \u201cI don\u2019t think we really thought about it at first,\u201d the four-stringer ponders. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t planned from the start for us to do an album, but we\u2019ve been doing this I think for about four years now since we reformed. The idea just built gradually over time, and I would say that John had ideas that he certainly wanted to explore. I think once we decided to do it, it was pretty much unanimous that that would be a good idea. Also, you\u2019ve got the thing where if you\u2019re playing the same set… Because we\u2019ve only really been doing festivals, gigs at weekends, and not on tour apart from one South American tour. You find yourself doing the same set, though. After that, you feel you need to put something new into this. You need to kind of liven it up, and make it a bit more vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutting fresh material aids artists with respect to promoting their overall brand. \u201cOf course, yeah,\u201d Ian acknowledges. \u201cWhat you hope would be nice is if some of the younger generation can pick up on it, like people who wouldn\u2019t certainly have known us from the original days. You actually do see that at the gigs. You get the guys our age who come up and say like \u2018Yeah, I saw you in \u201992,\u2019 and that kind of thing, but you do see a decent amount of youngsters. So yeah, it\u2019d be really good if we could pick up a few new people who didn\u2019t really know what we were about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow Gripped<\/em>\u2019s issue was handled by Peaceville Records, news of the album contract having been signed being disclosed on July 28th, 2018. \u201cThey knew we were doing a new album,\u201d the musician imparts. \u201cI\u2019m not exactly sure how it went down, but I think with them celebrating their 30 years since they started… It\u2019s been 30 years for us as well. Plus, with the friendships with the guys from Bloodbath who are obviously on the label, I think all of those kind of things came together to create a situation where it just seemed like an obvious thing to do, if you know what I mean. There was a few things like that, where like I say, things just kind of happened, because they felt like the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow Gripped<\/em> was released on November 2nd, 2018 via Peaceville Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2018. 2018 promotional photograph by Trima Photography. 1993 promotional photograph by Steve Gullick.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANCER – Crimes So Evil Anthony Morgan November 2018 Cancer (l-r): Ian Buchanan, John Walker and Carl Stokes Telford, England-based death metal group Cancer announced their reformation on September 12th, 2013, having disbanded for the second time during 2006. Cancer existed from 1987 until 1996 during their inaugural foray, with their sophomore jaunt lasting from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76171,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76150\/revisions\/76171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}