I've been locked in the Boneman labs for a week listening, testing and running a thorough diagnostic examination on Wake the Dead, Comeback Kid's second album. After strenuous data-processing and double-blind tests I can confirm street rumors that Wake The Dead is "one of the best albums of 2005." The Comeback Kid have turned out a record so old-school it hurts…hurts so good that is. Wake The Dead hints at Dagnasty and or 7 Seconds Roots with an even more contemporary nod to Ensign and Faded Grey, including standard hardcore lyrics dealing with issues of truth and rising from the shackles of self-doubt.

Tearing into the plastic wrap on this album was like opening one of those cans of peanuts with the spring-loaded snakes in them - except instead of five springy snakes it's five dudes with baseball bats beating your skull into a bleeding sponge. Since I hadn't heard much of it lately, I thought this style of hardcore was going extinct. This is what Victory used to sound like before they became so deeply mired in the pop punk/nu metal/nu wave rut.

Hopefully with this record will serve as a wake-up call for a generation raised on The Brave Little Toaster and Micro Machines to shift poles from The Starting Line and Bowling for Soup to Comeback Kid and other hardcore powerhouses. For more proof try to download "Talk is Cheap" from the album and you'll understand what I'm talking about.