IN REVIEW: Comeback Kid - "Heavy Steps"

When you're a self-professed music fanatic with wide-ranging tastes, sometimes it's easy to let one slip through the cracks. So, when I heard Comeback Kid was releasing a new record, my thought process was, "oh yeah, they put out an okay record back in 2005, nice that they're still around", and that was the end of it. Wake the Dead didn't really register too much with me upon release, probably because I was too busy listening to Arcade Fire's Funeral and seeking out likeminded artists in the budding indie invasion. As a result, I just failed to pay attention to what they were doing in the years since.

Shame on me.

Heavy Steps, the Winnipeg-based crew's seventh album, is relentless; from the drop, its 32 minutes go hard and fast, piling licks on top of riffs and veering toward thrash metal regularly while staying grounded in its base of hardcore. It's the stuff that the soul craves when it all comes together, such as the incredible title track, the Joe Duplantier-featuring Crossed, or the earth-shaking second-half kickstarter Dead On the Fence.

If there's a criticism to be leveled on Heavy Steps, it's that it's perhaps too committed to its sound and that it rarely deviates from its core ingredients; that said, they've struck on a combination so cathartic and rewarding, I'm not sure playing around with the sound would have accomplished better results.

So, no real complaints here, aside from the fact that it took me way too long to come around to Comeback Kid; Heavy Steps grabs ahold and doesn't let go, offering a glorious whiff of the sweaty and chaotic mosh pits that have been absent from our lives for too long. It's the work of an established band firing on all cylinders and is, simply put, one of the best hardcore records I've heard in years.

January 21, 2022 • New Damage

Highlights Heavy Steps • Crossed • Dead On the Fence

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