 They’d signed on to Victory Records only the previous year, and had just released their first record with the label. The album’s title track and first single, “Wake The Dead,” was catchy enough to become a mini-hit for the band, and helped to bring in legions of fans, many of which had never really been interested in hardcore before. It wouldn’t have been outlandish to suggest that Comeback Kid was on its way to becoming one of the biggest bands in hardcore.
Not so fast. Signs of trouble appeared on a fall 2005 tour with Strung Out, where fans were surprised to see vocalist Scott Wade missing, replaced by guitarist Andrew Neufeld. Something seemed up, and sure enough, in March 2006, Wade departed the band mid-tour, saying he couldn't give the band the devotion that a lead singer should bring to the table.
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Not surprisingly, Neufeld quickly slid into the role of vocalist. This isn’t exactly a new role for Neufeld; he fronted Christian hardcore band Figure Four for years, alongside Jeremy Hiebert, who plays guitar for both bands. Despite the convenience of having Neufeld already in-house, it remained to be seen what such a lineup change would do to the band’s sound.
While Wake the Dead relied on catchy, melodic material as the foundation of the album, Broadcasting is decidedly tougher. The album’s opener, “Defeated,” takes ingredients from Wake the Dead (harmonized guitar choruses, booming gang vocals), but has a certain edge and fullness that the band hadn’t previously achieved. Credit producers Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, who also produced Wake the Dead; these two obviously built on the already fruitful experience they had with Comeback Kid, giving the band a huge, intimidating sound.
The songs that are truly “catchy” are not so for traditional reasons; instead of melodic vocal or guitar lines helping to identify the best songs here, it’s instead the songs that are booming, full, and heavy. Take the buildup and quasi-breakdown that end “Expose.” Neufeld and company manage to make this song sound like it’s being performed with every ounce of energy they possess, fittingly ending the track with a clearly exhausted Neufeld’s wail.
The more melodic material, like the first single and title track, simply isn't as strong as the likes of the feroucious “Give’r." Clocking in at just over a minute, the band puts on tape what might be the fastest song in their catalog. The same brand of lightning fast drums and guitars reappear in “Disconnected,” but not until after a relatively disappointing intro, an unfortunate trend throughout Broadcasting.
“In Case of Fire” is one of few songs that manages to be both energetic and melodic. Neufeld’s proclaiming the song’s title is perhaps the most memorable moment on the record, and Hiebert and the rest of the rhythm section chug this one along to a rousing finish.
While Broadcasting shows a version of Comeback Kid that seems a bit more agitated than in past recordings, the band didn’t make any wholesale changes that some fans likely feared, as Neufeld's typically growling vocals sound much like Wade's. But the songwriting does seem to have changed a bit; Wake the Dead and Turn it Around, the band’s first album, felt like they had a bit more continuity to them than Broadcasting, which is all over the map stylistically. Though a bit inconsistent, what saves Broadcasting is that when it’s on, it’s dead on.
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