Comeback Kid “Chosen Hell”
“When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home” – Chief Tecumseh
Let me ask you a question: can you discern “something as simple as right or wrong”? Is your methodology built upon an innate sense of righteousness and guided by a moral compass; are you conscious of your humanity and, thus, fallibility? And, what happens when all the right choices lead you down the wrong path, toward a different destination, or nowhere at all?
The search for answers to these dilemmas are what motivate COMEBACK KID. Embarking upon an ambitious journey of collective self-discovery, it is this thematic foundation that also provides the centripetal force propelling the Canadians’ latest creation, the epic eighth album, Chosen Hell, to heavenly hardcore heights.
Releasing the entire quiver of arrows in one fell swoop of guitar distortion, every opening beat of Terrance Pettitt’s drumkit hits the bullseye Target On My Back. Andrew Neufeld’s visceral voice ‘calling out to you with the blinders on’, the band unites in frenzy, as precision cuts of spitfire aggression pave the path forward.
Seeking bloody Vindication in the second, lyrically poisonous poetry combines with exceptionally crisp instrumental production. Quantifying Neufeld’s recent revelations of the unprecedentedly collaborative creative process, the ‘power and passion’ of guitarists Jeremy Hiebert and Stu Ross are on full display, as is the unmistakable impact of producer and engineer, WILL PUTNEY.
Recording at his aptly-named Graphic Nature Audio studio in New Jersey, the influence of Putney is tantamount; “he knows where we’re coming from and really understood our vision”. An accolade seconded by many, CBK continues the ‘long and diverse’ tradition of guest vocalists with another on Putney’s dynamic production list – SPIRITBOX’s Courtney LaPlante.
Shedding Season switching between the ‘raw guttural glory’ of LaPlante and the punctuated exclamations of Neubold, intimate knowledge of both bands’ vocalists by the man behind the controls culminates in the perfect amalgam of style and flair. Lost and Found the mutual ‘presence collides … echoing those interactions’ and foreshadowing the complementarity still to come ‘(a)live through a song’, later down the line.
Following the fourth and, by far, lengthiest track, a moment of melodic emotionality ‘break (into and) Underneath the Pressure’. CBK saying it best themself in the opening line of the call to action, ‘what a dichotomy’, a complex balance between despair, denial and defiance leads the audience into the titular half-way point.
Chosen Hell is a spiralling, regenerative eddy of reckoning. The confrontation and acceptance of consequences for oneself, the relinquishment of others from shared responsibility, the bridge’s songline, ‘You don’t deserve the mistakes that I’ve made, no, you don’t deserve my fate’, alludes to Neufeld’s less guarded approach to writing and, more broadly, demonstrates art-imitating-life as millions around the world awake to their own fateful realisations.
The harrowing opening of Yesterday’s Gone serves literally and metaphorically as the decisive turning point. Still imbued with the latent heat that COMEBACK KID perennially embody, the tenor of INCENDIARY’s Brendan Garrone expands the Tunnel Vision beyond seeing only stressors, steadily loosening the omnipresent grip of control to inspire ‘resolve’ and reassurance.
Across the couplet, the fine lines between ‘comfort’ and ‘chaos’ are blurred, uncertain first steps are taken toward ‘trusting all my instincts’, while acknowledgements are made regarding the natural regression back to ‘bitter(ness) all the same’. In real time, the stages of grief are processed, arriving at acceptance with the vow: ‘I’ve made my peace/now I leave you behind’.
An emotional earthquake not yet over, Becoming catalyses the tsunami of the final movements. Not a single note of Chosen Hell is shallow, every lyric ‘resisting apathy’ is symbolic, and, evoking deep-seated sobs that escape involuntarily and cathartic tears, with Heartland Elegy ‘I’m all in’ on CBK’s ‘euphorically shared advice’.
A penultimate song often suggesting it’s Too Late for being so completely swept away, there is no hint of recession or recoil from concluding the line of questioning proposed at the outset of this truly monolithic record. From beginning to end an indefatigable collective effort that produces a synonymously enthusiastic listening experience, COMEBACK KID may have Chosen Hell to bear its name but there is no denying the pure splendour that this record is.
Album Review By Belinda Quick
CHOSEN HELL – OUT NOW
https://bfan.link/chosen-hell
