Dead Set on Living is the fourth studio album by the Canadian hardcore punk band Cancer Bats. It was released on April 16, 2012 through Hassle Records in Europe, April 17 through Distort Entertainment in Canada, April 20 through Shock Records in Australia and New Zealand, and April 23 through Metal Blade Records in the United States. The album was recorded in December 2011.[1] In December 2011, Liam Cormier was asked about whether the groups sound has change much. “I think sound-wise there’s definitely more of the natural evolution of how gnarly we keep getting and how more refined everyone sounds. I’d say the majority of our fans now have seen our band live and know how gnarly and ferocious it is, so trying to compress that into a recording still is kind of difficult. Like we’d say ‘I thought we did it pretty well on Bears’, and then we’d re-examine it and see there’s still some elements that are missing.”[2]
The band’s influences steered away from the “traditional hardcore record” and took a wide variety of influences from indie rock bands like Fleet Foxes. Cormier, when asked about his influences, stated: “In a lot of ways we get really inspired by non-metal bands. For me, I find I really like looking at other things because I just don’t want to make a traditional hardcore record lyrically. So for me, I listen to a lot of indie rock and I’ve been getting super psyched on a lot of that, like the new Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes”.[3]