There’s something fitting about honouring the architects of heavy metal in the dead of a Canadian winter. This Thursday, December 11, Cancer Bats will transform into their alter ego Bat Sabbath for a night of Black Sabbath worship at Bar le Ritz, kicking off an eight-date tour that winds through Quebec and Ontario. For the six-time JUNO-nominated hardcore outfit, it’s a chance to pay tribute to their heroes while delivering the kind of bone-crushing riffs that made Sabbath legends in the first place.
Cancer Bats first launched Bat Sabbath in 2011 as a heartfelt homage to Black Sabbath, and the project has become a beloved part of their creative output. This December run feels particularly poignant, coming months after Ozzy Osbourne’s death earlier this year, following Black Sabbath’s reunion for his final performance. Frontman Liam Cormier framed the tour in appropriately reverential terms: “In December we will gather on Canadian soil to honour the great Ozzy Osbourne in song and worship through the power of Black Sabbath! We Bats are merely four humble servants of the riff, and shall do our best to worship and exalt the legendary Ozzy across these stages! Many Hails!”
The Montreal date marks the only Quebec stop before the tour shifts to Ontario, hitting Ottawa, Kingston, Guelph, St. Catharines, Hamilton, London, and wrapping up December 20 in Toronto at Hard Luck Bar. Supporting the run are Sliptomb, featuring Barrie/Toronto metal band Ethereal Tomb performing Slipknot material, and Pissfits, Moncton stoner punks Diner Drugs taking on the Misfits catalogue. It’s a triple-threat tribute bill that promises maximum devotion to the riff gods.
For Montreal fans who’ve followed Cancer Bats since their early hardcore days, Bat Sabbath offers a different kind of intensity, one rooted in the doomy, proto-metal foundations that influenced generations of heavy music. Thursday’s show at Bar le Ritz is a chance to hear Paranoid, War Pigs, and Iron Man delivered with the ferocity and respect they deserve.
Tickets are available now via Extensive Enterprise.
Photos – Joey Senft & Ryan Rumpel
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