Comeback Kid

Heavy Steps

Written by: PP on 29/01/2022 01:32:24

"Heavy Steps" is the first Comeback Kid album in five years and their seventh album overall. It follows their critically acclaimed 2017 album "Outsider", which saw the band explore some of their most melodic material yet, whilst also fully utilizing the Nuclear Blast production budget for an incredibly crisp and hard-hitting record overall. The same approach continues here to an extent where "Heavy Steps" in many places feels like "Outsider" part two.

To mask the similarity somewhat, the band has written some of their heaviest songs to date. Sure, material from "Turn It Around" and "Wake The Dead" is heavy in the hardcore sense, but "Heavy Steps" is outright metallic in places. "No Easy Way Out", for instance, is about as ferocious and angry as you've heard them sound throughout their entire career. Likewise, "Crossed", which features Gojira's Joe Duplantier, sounds more like a heavy metal song turned into Comeback Kid style melodic hardcore through sheer tempo. It's pissed off, coarse, and driven by the sort of fury that just isn't comparable to the "Somewhere, Somehow"'s of the previous record.

That said, this album isn't without signature-style anthemic melodies. "Everything Relates" (featuring JJ from Deez Nuts), for example, is a classic chant-along across a humongous melodic hardcore platform. It's one of those songs that'll blow the roof off any festival tent this coming summer and will be a staple in their setlist for years to come. Likewise, the title track and "Face The Fire" in particular display infectiously catchy melodic hardcore that qualifies as genre godhood: memorable choruses, fiery delivery that leaves Neufeld's pipes sounding like a razor's edge, and huge breakdowns that justify massive pits in a live environment.

Looking at "Heavy Steps" overall, however, it becomes clear it's not as immediately memorable as "Outsider" or, say, their seminal album "Symptoms + Cures". It lacks the flagship song or songs to win it all, instead featuring what feels like solid Comeback Kid style melodic hardcore with few surprises. Yes, the album is aggressively lined and comes at you with a force of a hurricane, but it can't be just me who's missing a "G.M. Vincent & I" or a "Surrender Control" type of an unforgettable anthem? But even when Comeback Kid isn't at their very best, their game is still close to the top of what's available in the genre nonetheless.

8

Download: Everything Relates, Heavy Steps, Face The Fire
For the fans of: Bane, One Step Closer, Sudden Waves, Stick To Your Guns
Listen: Facebook

Release date 21.01.2022
Nuclear Blast

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.