Most hardcore-punk fanatics will already know Winnipeg, Canada’s Comeback Kid *as the playful side-project to guitarist Andrew Neufield’s frontman day-job in *Figure Four, but with a freshly-inked deal with the gigantic *Victory Records *their time in the big league must surely be beckoning.

Whilst their 2003 effort _‘Turn It Around’ _(Facedown Records) was an album drenched in punch-tight posi-core grooves _‘Wake The Dead’ _takes the energy levels one notch higher with a melody-searing charge that has long been missed in the Victory Records stable, serving as a short-sharp punch in its now emo-bloated, Fat-Cat gut. The unmistakable presence of Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore behind the production desk gives each song some real muscle and helps retain a vigorous watertight clout that simply lacks in recent efforts by peers such as Kill Your Idols.

But in an album of this style, where even their moniker exudes the old hc spirit of picking yourself up, staying ‘posi’ and fighting against social injustice etc… it’s the fist-punching anthems that count and although the lyricism is there to back up their ideology, the choruses sadly aren’t. Whereas the likes of *Good Clean Fun *breath and shit these kind of anthems ‘Wake The Dead’ is just plain patchy, it’s title track the only worthy contender with some impressively impassioned gang-shout action in its chorus _“We said, we said, we said / This time was gonna be different”. _ It's also, incidentally, one of the best sing-along HC tunes these ears have heard in a very long time, shining like a beacon in an otherwise average CD.

But while we're under no illusions that this hasn’t been heard a million times before, for what it’s worth ‘Wake the Dead’ is still a good honest release that’ll find it hard to outstay its welcome.