Cancer Bats fans, you may regret reading this. If you missed their 20th anniversary party at the Opera House recently, you miss the best show of the year so far. This was a celebration like no other. But I will digress already to let you know who else showed up before I get to the highlight.
Chastity
Chastity opened the evening with a full-on audience. This crowd was not kidding around. They were here to be a part of a true event. Chastity was the warmup to a great party. The band was really surprised that they were actually playing to a packed house, and they loved it and worked even harder for it.
They came on and pounded the pavement like overworked construction workers. The light show behind them was pretty cool and it kept them in silhouette most of the time. It added that hint of mystery.
Their sound was raw, like a bunch of scrappy kids running wild in the alleyways.
This was a real meat and potatoes metal band that just puts it out there. There was nothing fancy or flashy. It was just hard and heavy.
Chastity live:
Teeth
What can you say about a band that comes on stage and just bites your head off? I would say they were full of ravenous teeth.
The lead singer came on strong like a professional wrestler and confronted the audience with his brand of aggression. It was like a full-on body contact trying to split your skull wide open. In fact, a funny moment happened when; he went in for a choke hold on one of the security guards in the pit, just for a photo op.
This moment was when the band seem to take a cue and play at a higher level. This was the beginning of a bit of crowd surfing.
This was a band that was playing like a freight train running downhill with a load of lead and no brakes!
The singer finished off the set by coming down from the stage and making sure the mosh pit was in full riot!
Taking a Bite with Teeth:
Anciients
Anciients changed the energy of the room. The opened up with an epic sound like they were creating an old majestic culture. It felt like a ritualistic and pragmatic sound mixed with intense vocals which drew you into a barren landscape and unfolded a new metal oasis.
The Opera house was a perfect backdrop and housed a roomful of heathens seeking a mystic alliance. Anciients were only too happy to comply.
They came in from Vancouver to prove that the west coast has some groundbreaking new sounds. Toronto was completely open to this experience.
As they dove deeper into their set, the songs seem to take on longer and more epic sounds. They added some progressive elements and made sure their sound was even tighter than before.
This is a band that is out to compete with the world stage of Heavy Metal. There were no flashy gimmicks or cheesy sounds that may appear at some metal shows.
In fact, they pulled you like a horse to a murky and brackish lake. The crowd drank it all in!
Anciients Realm:
Cancer Bats
The first thing the lead singer- Liam Cormier said to the excited and loyal audience was, “It’s 20 years and you are still F@(%!^g here”!
This is no folk festival; this is a band that puts out 200% from beginning to end. I was exhausted just watching them. It is nothing short of a pure adrenaline rush that never quits.
Once you accept this, it is a shot in the arm that spurs your essence into frenzy.
What made this show special was they have been playing this high energy music for 20 years. They loved showing off their gratitude and giving the audience every cent worth.
I enjoyed the story of their young guitar player who bought the Cancer Bats very first album when he was 9 years old. He not only played that album to death, but that is the album where he taught himself to play guitar. In fact, the entire band played with the unruly angst of a bunch of teenage boys having a blast!
The main reason we all gathered was to celebrate that very first album in its entirety. If you owned the CD, they even added the bonus track, which whipped the crowd into a fury!
The fury was so good; the amount of crowd surfers that came through to the front of the stage was phenomenal. If Punk rock was in Hawaii, the beach would have been packed.
Another moment of gratitude came when they thanked Alexis on Fire for taking them on tour for a year when they were just starting out. This must have been a huge boost for them as they developed their stage chops. Alexis on Fire would be the band to help them with stage presence.
Once the album was done, they continued with a few more of their songs and even threw in the Beastie Boys classic- “Sabotage”.
I felt sorry for the security at this point because they were doing all the heavy lifting and helping people over the barrier. This was nonstop by the end of the evening; you could tell they were getting tired as a couple of people were flailing and looking sloppy as they were being hoisted over.
So far, this was the highest energy show I have seen this year, and I am sure you will read about this in my top ten concerts for 2026 at the end of the year.
Cancer Bats Celebration:
For your exploration, here are the bands Instagram accounts:
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