I have been completely on the outside of the whole Skater Punk scene my entire life but I take the time to look inwards because there are a lot of things I recognize in the music and the ideas that resonate with my own beliefs and ideas and tastes. The COMEBACK KID come out swinging on their 2014 album "Die Knowing".

This was my introductory album from Winnipeg's COMEBACK KID. and I was really impressed on how heavy 'Die Knowing' was. COMEBACK KID really reached back to the roots of hardcore to deliver the heavy slams for this record. There are great songs on here like "Unconditional", "Somewhere In This Miserable...", "Lower the Line" and "Should Know Better". Listening to really energetic, pounding music on "Die Knowing" has an effect like injecting yourself intravenously with espresso. I regret never really giving the band a chance from hearing about them in the past. When I think of bands on Victory Records, my mind automatically goes to bands like HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, EMMURE and SILVERSTEIN. Even the thought of listening to music from these bands make me cringe harder than I have ever cringed in my life and shudder in repulsion. It is a real shame that my mind goes to those Screamo and Whorecore© groups like them and not to great Victory bands like INTEGRITY, REFUSED, and DEAD TO FALL.

There are a couple of songs on "Die Knowing" that are more sing-songy on here that do remind me of what I guess is the "stereotypical Victory Records band". COMEBACK KID even have those moments where they get start to sound a lot like pop-punk with rougher edges and it really drags the other tracks as well as the rest of the album down. "Sink In" & "Didn't Even Mind" are songs that are far more formulaic and contrived for them to blend in with the heavier songs on this album. The repetitive smug scream-singing makes listening to songs like these seem as if I'm chewing on tin foil. The record would have been absolutely solid as a Hardcore album had the band not included them in my promo copy of their album.

So with the points subtracted from the overall score that brings "Die Knowing"'s score to a 7 out of 10! It's not too bad, its actually pretty fun most of the time. But just get ready to skip a track or two when you listen to the whole thing. I am really going to love listening to COMEBACK KID's 2002 album "Turn It Around" after hearing this and seeing how far they've come in their lives! I am not even close to talking about hardcore yet so I hope you got more in you for my next Hardcore review.