Comeback Kid — Symptoms + Cures

Just four years ago, Comeback Kid were forced to re-evaluate the band's existence when vocalist Scott Wade left the band due to stress. In a surprising move, guitarist Andrew Neufeld stepped in to fill his place.

The departure of a lead singer can often kill or cripple a band, and it's also extremely difficult for another member of that band to adequately fill their place (we all know how Genesis deteriorated after Peter Gabriel left and Phil Collins took over, for instance). But Comeback Kid proved that wasn't going to happen on 2007's Broadcasting...

With Symptoms + Cures, they've shown that their lineup has solidified around Neufeld, and they've also released their best album to date.

Fucked Up's The Chemistry Of Common Life is now pretty much Canada's best-known hardcore album and is rightly recognized as one of the best hardcore records to be released in this country over the last few years. But Symptoms + Cures deserves a place at or near the top of that list as well.

What it lacks in Chemistry's experimentation and hipster cred, it makes up for in sheer rage and brilliant shoutalongs like on "G.M. Vincent And I," which will undoubtedly make its songs go over very, very well live. And songs like the title track are heavier than anything the band have done to date and should also make kids go crazy in circle pits worldwide

Simply, Symptoms + Cures is Comeback Kid's masterpiece. Its songs fit together like a puzzle, and are so perfectly sequenced that if you moved one of them, things wouldn't work or there'd be a gigantic hole. Symptoms + Cures is quite simply a hardcore classic.

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