Comeback Kid – Chosen Hell Review

Comeback Kid have been a mainstay in my library since their 2003 debut, Turn It Around. This mix of fast, melodic, and heavy hardcore punk was right up my alley. It was aggressive but avoided being too much in the realm of Beatdown. I might get flak for this, but Comeback Kid‘s sound felt accessible to a kid who, at the time, was more into nu-metal and emo.

So here we are 23 years later, and Comeback Kid have dropped Chosen Hell, their eighth album, and their sixth album with former guitarist and now lead vocalist Andrew Neufeld at the helm. Much like their debut, the album is a short-but-sweet, fast-paced, frenzied, melodic hardcore record clocking in at just over 30 minutes that absolutely leaves you wanting more.

From the first track, Target on My Back, you’re given exactly what you’d expect from a Comeback Kid record. It’s an intense, riff-heavy track full of energy that’d make almost anyone want to get up and swing their arms around. No hardcore dancing in the living room? Nah, we’re hardcore dancing in the living room.

With 25 years under their belt, Comeback Kid are showing no signs of slowing down. As someone who is more familiar with their first two albums, Chosen Hell feels like a perfect follow-up to Wake The Dead. Not to say that anything they released between then isn’t great, but from a comparison standpoint, this feels like Comeback Kid‘s golden era, and one I know I’ll be spinning for years to come.

This album also touts a handful of features that are likely to prick up some ears, like Shedding Season, which features Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante, who channels her iwrestledabearonce days, providing an absolutely nuts arrangement of chaotic screams. When I first caught wind of this feature, I was unsure whether we’d be getting a Comeback Kid song with clean vocals, but I was thankfully mistaken.

Another more fitting feature on the record is the track Yesterday’s Gone, which has Incindiary‘s Brendan Garrone taking the mic. Not quite as wild a pick as LaPlante, but still a great track nonetheless.

There are times when the record throws a bit of a curveball, stepping more into post-hardcore and even melodic metalcore territories at some points, which I personally don’t mind, but the hardcore purists out there might not be as welcoming. Initially, I did feel like Chosen Hell was having a bit of an identity crisis, but the more I listened, the more it felt right. While the album does occasionally flow into other core genres, it’s still a cohesive record.

You’ve got to hand it to Comeback Kid; they’re halfway through their third decade as a band and are showing no signs of slowing down. Instrumentally, the band are absolutely ripping, as Chosen Hell has some killer guitar riffs, and even Chase Brenneman’s gritty bass lines in tracks like Tunnel Vision are sick as fuck. All in all, Chosen Hell is a fantastic melodic hardcore record that is definitely sitting near the top of Comeback Kid records for me.