CANCER – Crimes So Evil (November 2018) | Features / Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine

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 2003 until 2006. Five full-lengths were issued during those stints, namely; To The Gory End (1990), Death Shall Rise (1991), The Sins Of Mankind (1993), Black Faith (1995), and Spirit In Flames (2005). Interest in the catalogue from Cyclone Empire initiated Cancer’s return.

“They wanted to put a re-release out of the first three albums, which we decided to go for,” remembers Ian Buchanan, bassist for Cancer. “We 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.”

The rhythmist’s involvement did not extend to the second formation, though he distinctly remembers the initial disbandment. “That’s a difficult question,” he admits. “It’s 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’t really chime well with us as people, that kind of approach.”

Fourth jaunt Black Faith had undergone release during 1995 via East West. “I thought that Black Faith was a fantastic album,” Ian chuckles. “I loved it; I thought that it was absolutely brilliant, but unfortunately not many other people did. That’s 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’t necessarily be into Black Faith. You can also see how anyone who may have gotten into Black Faith – who may have been into that style – 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.”

Black Faith arguably caught long-time fans off guard, as it were. “Do you know what?,” the four-stringer begins. “I think the whole thing with Black Faith 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’ve been better if we hadn’t done it as a Cancer album (laughs).”

Throughout the course of the 1990s, a multitude of bands took departures courtesy of their studio output. “That’s true, yeah,” Ian replies. “There 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.”

Cyclone Empire’s wish to re-release Cancer’s initial brace of studio fare initiated the 2013 formation. Five years later in November 2018, sixth studio affair Shadow Gripped saw the light of day through Peaceville Records. “The way things are with us now, John’s over in Spain, so he comes up with riffs,” the musician informs. “When 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’s writing backwards and forwards. Eventually, he gets something like a song together, and then… I don’t know, really. It’s been a bit weird with him, really, because the way we’ve done it, he sends stuff over and then we do our thing to it. It’s been a strange one, but I think it’s worked.”

Though vocalist / guitarist John Walker authors the initial riffs, Cancer’s fellow members in Ian and drummer Carl Stokes additionally contribute. “We all kind of contribute, but it starts with the riffs,” he stresses.

Cancer 1991 (l-r): Ian Buchanan, Carl Stokes, John Walker (front) and James
Murphy

In past times, penning material differed somewhat. “It’s always started with the riffs,” the performer judges. “In the old days, we’d 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’s hopefully a decent song. It’s weird, because it’s kind of different. It’s not that different, though (laughs).”

Shadow Gripped harbours traits with earlier Cancer compositions. “It’s more in the vein of the first two or three albums, stylistically,” Ian critiques. “Personally, I like it. I think it compares favourably with anything that the band’s done, but yeah, definitely it’s in that older style – with a return to the original sound. The thing is, we’re a three-piece now. We’ve gone back to the original three-piece line-up, so there’s something quite natural about taking the music back to the kind of way we felt, and the kind of vibe we had back then.”

Cancer’s temporary transformation into a quartet occurred during the making of Cancer’s second offering. “What happened there was we were in Morrisound Studios (in Tampa, Florida), and we’d recorded the album Death Shall Rise,” the bassist recalls. “We’d pretty much got it all done, and then we met James Murphy in the studio. He came over to say ‘Hi’, 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.

“Scott 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.”

Reforming in 2013, Cancer was briefly a four-piece once more. “Very briefly, yeah,” Ian confirms. “Of course it was, yeah… We had Barry (Savage, guitars) back in the band… Yeah, that’s 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’t come were personal, so I can’t go into that. When he couldn’t carry on – for his personal reasons – at that point, we were confronted with that situation of ‘What do we do? Do we get somebody else in to fill his place?’ Then we just kind of went ‘You know what? We were a three-piece originally. Let’s do it,’ though, and it felt really good. We had a rehearsal as a three-piece, and it just felt like the right thing to do.”

The dynamic as part of a trio differs to that of a quartet. “It’s a bit more straightforward,” the rhythmist figures. “Everybody in the band has got a bit more space to do their thing, really. There’s also that thing that you’ve got a challenge with a three-piece of creating the big sound, and it’s nice. It’s nice to have a go at doing that; it’s nice to get the three-piece sound to work.”

That straightforward vibe lends itself to early Cancer outings. “The early records were kind of classic old school death metal, really, but with a kind of heavy metal vibe as well,” Ian reckons. “I 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.”

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

Cancer 1993 (l-r): Barry Savage, Ian Buchanan, John Walker and Carl Stokes

Drum and bass parts were recorded at Foel Studios in Llanfair Caereinion, Welshpool, Wales. “Foel was a studio that we knew, anyway,” Ian shares. “I know Carl’s (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’s great you can do that sort of thing these days. It’s all on the internet and sent over, and then mixed with Simon Eftemie.”

The musician feels working with Simon Eftemie is a positive experience. “It’s good,” he enthuses. “I like working with Simon, because he knows how to get the job done and we’ve 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’s about; it’s capturing the sound of the band, the way it is.”

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. “Well, of course there are differences, but Scott was kind of like that as well,” Ian concludes. “He just captured the band as it was. No messing about with Scott. I think Simon perhaps gets a bit more involved with what you’re doing, and getting your performance. He’ll help with your performance in terms of encouraging you when things aren’t 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 – he had just recorded the Obituary album. That was an exciting time, going and meeting Scott.”

Scott Burns was the “go-to” guy within the death metal realm, at that time during the early 90s. “Oh God, yeah,” the entertainer seconds. “We brought him over here, and he froze his ass off. We couldn’t 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.”

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. “What happened there was we were wanting to do a demo, and we were just looking around for studios,” Ian divulges. “A 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).

“At 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.”

Naturally, one wonders what thoughts Stevie Young held in relation to Cancer’s overall sound and style. “This was the funny thing,” the bassist notes. “At one point, he was really puzzled by it. He was like ‘God… Real raucous’ (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 ‘God, this is so heavy.’ That was mental, really. We didn’t 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’t 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.”

Returning to the topic of Shadow Gripped, Ian wished to capture his live sound within a studio setting. “Makes a change to be asked about the bass,” he laughs. “Basically, the bass was just a matter of capturing the sound that I was using live, really. I’ve got this really old Boss, kind of multi-effects thing – it’s really simple. It’s not electronic; it’s one of these old analogue things, which is just four foot switches in a row. So, I’ve got that, and that’s how I get my sound live. We got the sound in the studio the same way. Obviously, you’ve 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’s pretty much just capturing the moment and the live sound, really.”

Bloodbath guitarist Anders Nyström makes a guest appearance on the track ‘Ballcutter’. “It’s one of them things, because obviously we’ve gotten to know the guys from Bloodbath,” the rhythmist tells. “I don’t know if you know, but they got the name of the band from one of our tracks (from To The Gory End), 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’t know if you know, but John did some vocals on one of the new Bloodbath tracks – ‘Bloodicide’ (from October 2018’s The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn). It was one of them, kind of mutual. It was easy to do and it was mutual, and everyone was happy.”

Shadow Gripped’s cover artwork reflects its lyrical meanderings. “We kind of left it to the guy,” Ian confesses. “He’s 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.”

A full-length from Cancer wasn’t a certainty in 2018, but has now seen the light of day. “I don’t think we really thought about it at first,” the four-stringer ponders. “It wasn’t planned from the start for us to do an album, but we’ve 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’ve got the thing where if you’re playing the same set… Because we’ve 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.”

Cutting fresh material aids artists with respect to promoting their overall brand. “Of course, yeah,” Ian acknowledges. “What you hope would be nice is if some of the younger generation can pick up on it, like people who wouldn’t 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 ‘Yeah, I saw you in ’92,’ and that kind of thing, but you do see a decent amount of youngsters. So yeah, it’d be really good if we could pick up a few new people who didn’t really know what we were about.”

Shadow Gripped’s issue was handled by Peaceville Records, news of the album contract having been signed being disclosed on July 28th, 2018. “They knew we were doing a new album,” the musician imparts. “I’m not exactly sure how it went down, but I think with them celebrating their 30 years since they started… It’s 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.”

Shadow Gripped was released on November 2nd, 2018 via Peaceville Records.

Interview published in November 2018. 2018 promotional photograph by Trima Photography. 1993 promotional photograph by Steve Gullick.

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