Cancer Bats announce new album Psychic Jailbreak, and share title track

C. Bats — (Image credit: Bat Skull Records)

Cancer Bats will release a new album, Psychic Jailbreak, on April 15 through their own Bat Skull Records label.

It will be the first album issued by the Canadian punks since the departure, last October, of founding guitarist Scott Middleton. And if you're keen to hear how the Bats sound as a trio, you can listen to the album’s title track right here, right now.

Vocalist Liam Cormier says, “We needed to kick things off with a total banger of a track that makes you want to pump your fist in the air, smash your head to the beat, all while screaming the call to action ‘Reject the fallacy of time!’ The concept of a Psychic Jailbreak is to completely change one’s perspective on something, in this case it’s our ideas of fixed linear time.”

The album, the band’s seventh, was recorded with producer JP Peters (Propagandhi) at his Private Ear Recordings studio in Winnipeg.

“We knew this album had to be special,” says Cormier. “Our band has never been one sole member tasked with all the writing. Over the last 15 years of releasing albums, it’s been a collaboration of the four of us forming all musical ideas. That being said, we knew that the three remaining Bats would have to prove our worth with this next album. We wanted to show Cancer Bats fans that an exciting new future was in store for us. To say the stakes were high on this album, would be an understatement. We were all feeling a mix of excitement and nerves.

“On the final days, while adding the last bits of skateboard noises and guitar shreds, we were all feeling our confidence levels rise with each playback. This last years’ worth of long hours and many late nights writing, finally coming together as a whole and fully formed effort. We were proud as a band and felt this new offering was worthy to join in the legacy of Cancer Bats albums.”

The track list for Psychic Jailbreak is:

1. Radiate
2. The Hoof
3. Lonely Bong
4. Friday Night
5. Hammering On
6. Crocodiles
7. Shadow of Mercury
8. Keep On Breathin’
9. Pressure Mind
10. Rollin Threes
11. Psychic Jailbreak

Cancer Bats will return to the UK in June to play the Slam Dunk Festival.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.