COMEBACK KID has been one of the biggest and best bands in hardcore since their formation in 2002, and now, two decades later, they demonstrate their unwavering talent once again with "Heavy Steps", their second full length released though the legendary Nuclear Blast. It's sound is timeless, a true classic Hardcore album with enough punk scrappiness and intense heaviness to make it one of their best. The 5-year gap between this and the last album has proven very worthwhile, as they've come at this a lot of inspiration and energy, the results speak for themselves.

The title track opens the album with done-to-death, but still highly enjoyable snare and tom build up into a muted riff with the accented cymbal hits, an intro that anyone who listens to Hardcore or Metalcore will have heard so many times before, but never fails to pack a punch, it opens the album with a nice sense of familiarity.

"No Easy Way Out" has everything you'd need in a hardcore track and boasts a very impressive mix with lots of moving elements.  The hi-hat 16^th note section sounds like it could be a room recording, very natural sounding drums, mixing nicely with the distorted guitars. The repeated 'there's no easy way out' is a very catchy hook, ideal for getting a noisy crowd at a live show. Guitars offer some great deep bassy tones, weighty riffs and sounds throughout the track. The song ends on a brilliant breakdown, set off by a rapid rolling tom drum bridge followed by a few bars of building snare into full time thrashing chorus, the heaviness really hits when the drums move into half time but unfortunately, it's over almost as quick as it started

With a feature from Joe Duplantier of GOJIRA, "Crossed" is a powerhouse track, a heavy assault that is ushered in by joe's signature guitar sound, which mixes amazingly with the Hardcore style. In another effort to mix the styles, the opening drumbeat is very reminiscent of GOJIRA drummer Mario's style. The song starts off with a slower approach, every beat hitting hard as possible, especially the vocal performance, split between throaty shouts and higher pitched screams. The song ends with a super slow redux of the chorus, washy crashes and deep guitar tones filling the sparse tempo with density.

"Heavy Steps" has all the makings of a classic Hardcore album. Great instrumental throughout, notable drums ad guitar parts that generate so much energy and exciting, as well as the great features from other artists. COMEBACK KID really knows to write a catchy song ad this album has a bunch of them. Perfect summer record and an all-round triumphant comeback for the band.