We all love a good comeback album, but the path to a triumphant return can be rockier for some bands more than others.
When it comes to veteran outfits, a great comeback might simply boil down to writing better songs than your previous stinker. For others, the journey back to the top can be a much more painful and complicated affair — sometimes involving major band breakups, personal problems, moments of great adversity and, tragically, even death. But while the world of heavy music is filled with bands making a bid for a glorious next phase, the truth is not every return is compelling, or even good.
With that in mind, we asked Revolver to pick the greatest comeback album of all time, and these are the classic platters that got the most votes.
Carcass – ‘Surgical Steel’
Nearly two decades separate Carcass’ initial closing chapter, 1996’s then-aptly-titled Swansong, and their bombastically extreme comeback, 2013’s Surgical Steel. Even the band weren’t too crazy about their mid-Nineties jumping-off point, which took on a more direct death-‘n’-roll approach than the grotesque and complex gore-scaping of classics like Heartwork.
Nevertheless, while Carcass had technically gotten back together in 2007, anticipation was high for the U.K. rotters’ return to the studio. Thankfully, there’s plenty of meat on the bone here. A relentlessly blast-beating, melodically neo-classical fury fuels much of the album (“The Master Buther’s Apron,” “Captive Bolt Pistol”) while bassist Jeff Walker’s fetid tongue wretches out classic Carcass witticisms full of medical jargon and animal rights sentiment.
A late-Nineties brain hemorrhage and subsequent coma left founding drummer Ken Owen unable to participate in the Carcass reunion as a full-time member, but he added vocals to this killer comeback LP.
Iron Maiden – Brave New World
The mid-Nineties were a weird time for Iron Maiden. The veteran act faced multiple lineup changes, while the rise of grunge and slacker irony made Maiden’s brand of earnest, if over-the-top, metal jubilation seem out-of-sync with the zeitgeist. On the other hand, the two albums they made with vocalist Blaze Bayley also sounded supremely deflated in the absence of their previous frontman, human air raid siren Bruce Dickinson.
2000’s Brave New World was a welcome course correction, with both Dickinson and classic-era guitarist Adrian Smith rejoining the fold. They also re-upped the irons as a three-guitars-hoisting sextet, retaining ball-of-fury Janick Gers alongside Smith and Dave Murray. Opener “The Wickerman” was the punchiest and punkest the band had sounded since the early Eighties. It was a brave new world at the dawn of the millennium, and Maiden sounded — and certainly looked — bigger than ever.
AC/DC – Back in Black
AC/DC were riding high off the success of Highway to Hell when their second vocalist, Bon Scott, was found dead from alcohol poisoning at the age of 33, following a night of binge drinking. Though the Aussie hard rockers contemplated calling it day, they ultimately forged forward with Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson, a similarly street-talking tough who sang in his own uniquely-screeching register. And then they wrote and recorded the masterpiece that is 1980’s Back in Black.
Honestly, it’s the comeback album against which all others are measured. Despite the requiem bell that kicks off the meta-referential “Hell’s Bells,” the record is more of a celebratory rock-and-roll wake than a funereal outing. Its all-timer title track is a pledge to live life to its fullest, while mega-hit “You Shook Me All Night Long” was proof that the band were still horny little devils at heart.
Having sold 50-million copies worldwide and counting, few albums — let alone comebacks — are even in the same stratosphere as this game-changing juggernaut.
Deftones – Diamond Eyes
Diamond Eyes wasn’t originally going to be Deftones’ follow-up to 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist. Initially, the band had been working on a record titled Eros, but then a tragic car crash in late 2008 put bassist Chi Cheng into a coma. Though they’d hoped to finish the record upon his return, the bassist would sadly never recover, and he passed away in 2013. The accident changed the course of the alt-metal group’s lives — and to a less important extent, their discography — forever.
In Cheng’s absence, Deftones linked up with longtime friend and Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega to write new music. This lineup sought out a raw, stripped-down feel in the studio, while many of Chino Moreno’s lyrics focused on keeping connected to friends and lovers. The result is one of the band’s most magically intimate and restorative recordings.
Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue
They say it’s always darkest before the dawn. That’s certainly the maxim Alice in Chains took to heart with their fourth full-length, the sensational Black Gives Way to Blue. It had been 14 years since the Seattle group had delivered an album, and seven since the tragic death of founding frontman Layne Staley in 2002. And even when the surviving members initially linked up with vocalist-guitarist William DuVall to play a few reunion sets, the idea of writing new music as AIC seemed unlikely. But then, things clicked.
A natural heaviness was hoisted onto the comeback record — whether internally, through the act of continuing on without a beloved friend and collaborator, or externally, via the hefty expectations fans held for such an iconic outfit. Riff master Jerry Cantrell countered this with some of the bleakest sounds of their career thus far (“Check My Brain,” “A Looking in View”), but also staggeringly bittersweet, acoustic sublimity (“When the Sun Rose Again”).
It still sounded super dark. But reignited by their love of music-making, it’s the moment where Alice In Chains came out of the abyss with their passionate, vibrant Blue.