Comeback Kid – Outsider (Review)

Comeback Kid are a Canadian hardcore band and this is their sixth album.

This is energetic and volatile hardcore, with elements of both punk and metal in the band’s sound.

Comeback Kid play modern hardcore, and do so in a vibrant, riotous way. These songs feel born for the live environment, and I imagine them filling up many a hot, sweaty pit with their lively presence.

This is a band that don’t seem to be too bothered with stylistic constraints and genre rules though, (hurrah!), so the album is peppered with various different influences that come from many different strains of hardcore and punk, both old-school and new, as well as a bit of metal here and there.

Although certainly aggressive in many ways and places, this is tempered by a melodic sensibility and some anthemic qualities. The songs are catchy and memorable, and full of hooks and engaging riffs. The band have an easy grasp of dynamics too it seems, and the structuring and flow of the album and the songs themselves reveals itself early on to be very well-thought-out.

The album boasts 13 tracks, but it doesn’t outstay its welcome, with a decent and appropriate running length of almost 37 minutes. This is long enough to absorb the listener, but not too long so as to lose their attention.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, the album also includes a few different guests across the tracks to spice things up a bit further, with the most notable from my point of view being the inimitable Devin Townsend.

All of this makes for an album that’s diverse and enjoyable. Add this to the fact that the band clearly know how to write a good tune, and Outsider is a first-rate hardcore release.

Highly recommended for any fan of modern hardcore.