Taya Llewellyn
February 5, 2024| Harry Shiels |LIVE REVIEW
Live Review: Bat Sabbath and Margarita Witch Cult | Castle & Falcon, Birmingham | 01/02/2024
Cancer Bats? Who are Cancer Bats? We’re busy checking out Canada’s best Black Sabbath tribute act in their spiritual home of Birmingham, supported by local rip roaring fuzz lords Margarita Witch Cult for a sold out show.
Margarita Witch Cult
Taking over from the mighty Acid Throne who acted as the support act for the first half of the tour; Birmingham based Margarita Witch Cult are the perfect openers for tonight’s old school metal worship. Acting as the hometown stop on their first extended UK tour, Margarita Witch Cult’s fuzzed out 70’s riff worship gets tonight’s sold out crowd worked up from the opening grooves and face melting solo of “Aradia”. Speaking of face-melting, the band are LOUD blasting from the PA giving them a massive presence in the 400 capacity room. The band rip through choice cuts from their excellent self-titled 2023 debut album, including the high-speed Motorhead-esque “Annihilation” which encourages healthy amounts of head-banging across the audience. Paying tribute to old gods themselves, Margarita Witch Cult throw in a dirty stoner cover of Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’ to the delight of many in the crowd. Closing their set with the dramatic and anthemic ‘Sacrifice’, Margarita Witch Cult made a hell of an impression on tonight’s crowd.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn
Margarita Witch Cult
Bat Sabbath
All joking aside, Canadian hardcore punk darlings Cancer Bats have been moonlighting as Bat Sabbath for a little while now. Originally debuting as an after party set at Sonisphere 2011, it’s been a long time since moonlight project Bat Sabbath played any shows outside of their native Canada. The time has finally come for Bat Sabbath to encourage worship of the old riff lords across their homeland, with tonight acting as a homecoming as the birthplace of the almighty Black Sabbath. Frenetic doesn’t even begin to describe the energy of Bat Sabbath, opening the set with the legendary ‘Children Of The Grave’ there is rarely a moment where any member of the band is still. Kicking straight into the Vol. 4 classic ‘Supernaut’, there is a good range of Ozzy-era Sabbath coverage in the set, making sure some deeper cuts get the love as well as the classics.
‘Paranoid’ played back to back with ‘Iron Man’ really gets the party started; Liam Cormier is charismatic as a frontman in Cancer Bats form, but genuinely acts as though a man possessed tonight when belting out Sabbath lyrics, baiting the crowd to get more erratic and open up the pits. Making a quick stop to the legendary debut album, ‘N.I.B’s opening bass line keeps the crowd grooving and crying “Oh Yeah” louder than Cormier can compete with. Letting things slow back down for a moment and moving back to Paranoid with a killer rendition of the psychedelic ‘Electric Funeral’ gives the crowd a moment to breathe before its erratic second half. This however is when things really start to go bonkers.
“Have you ever been to outer space?” A simple question from Cormier as guitarist Jackson Landry brings forth the thunderous chug of Sabbath’s best riff (fight me) “Symptom Of The Universe” starts, the pit grows exponentially as fans young and old join forces for destructive partying. Following this with “Into The Void” just sealed the fate of several of the necks in this room, sinking into the opening hook that launched a thousand acid trips and inspired doom bands for decades to come. One final stop at the legendary debut for the song that started it all, ‘Black Sabbath’ from Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath. Once again Cormier has a hard time singing louder than the audience do, something that only continues as the opening chords ring out for “War Pigs”. Bat Sabbath play it so damn well, Bassist Jaye Schwarzer hits the epic guitar solo note for note alongside Landry. Singing the legendary bridge melody at the top of their lungs the audience are drenched with sweat and begging for more as the band walk off stage.
Not quite done yet; Cormier once again relays his admiration of the metal legends and the bands joy of playing a full set in Sabbath city, as well as giving thanks to Drummer Joel Johnson for standing in for their shows. Wanting to leave the audience with a little taste of the band proper, the final song is the Cancer Bats classic ‘Pneumonia Hawk’, whipping the audience into the most chaotic and final mosh pit of the evening. When all is said and done, simply put, Bat Sabbath were absolutely killer maaaaannn.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn
