Twenty-one years is a healthy career for a heavy band, and plenty of the great heavy bands have struggled to release consistently good records for even half that time. Comeback Kid don’t really fit the mould there, as the TROUBLE EP is still bubbling over with energy and enthusiasm like a band fifteen years their junior. The release is comfortably under 13 minutes long, so is in and out before you’ve even realised it, and the whole time keeps a grin plastered on your face. Opening song and title track equivalent ‘Trouble In the Winner’s Circle’ is a riotously enjoyable hardcore punk track that edges on the pop punk side of the genre, whilst still keeping both feet stuck into the heavy end of things. Safely less than three minutes long, it brings in upbeat punk riffs and an easily chanted chorus that’ll sate any singalong appetite. ‘Disruption’ gives the listener all of half a second to prepare before it kicks in, getting things going with some razor riffs and the sound of youthful anger.
The second half of the EP feels like it adds a little bit more steel to the backbone of the music, with ‘Chompin’ At The Bit’ becoming that little bit more aggressive and notably featuring next to no purely clean vocals, with every word having some grit to it. The guitar lines speed through the whole song and make this a circle pit anthem in the making. Finale ‘Breaking and Bruised’ is the longest song on TROUBLE by almost a full minute, and takes its time to fully get into the swing of things before exploding with energy and pent up teenage angst that should come completely from left field, but fits in perfectly here. Rumbling bass lines and driving drums keep the almost four minute long closer thundering along, giving the short but sweet EP an amazing finishing flourish.
Across four songs that just scrape in over 12 minutes total, they’ve expertly shown off everything that made them so popular in the early 2000’s whilst giving all those sounds a modern spin. Sounding like a band who’ve somehow gone back in time to their teens whilst keeping their musical experience, Comeback Kid have given us a gift in the shape of the TROUBLE EP, letting us hear exactly what a teenage band with years of experience would sound like.