Toronto punk quartet Bad Waitress are back with “Lovin’ Kind,” the first taste of their new album In The Hollow, due October 30 via Stomp Records.

The album marks the band’s first full-length in five years, following 2021’s No Taste. This time, Kali-Ann Butala, Katelyn Molgard, Moon and Nicole Cain have taken production into their own hands, recording with engineer Josh Korody at Toronto’s Wychwood Sound.

“Lovin’ Kind” introduces that next chapter with just over two minutes of jagged guitars, pounding rhythms and conflicting emotions. What begins with the bones of a love song quickly becomes something more uneasy, as attraction collides with resentment, vulnerability and the urge to push someone away before they can get too close.

That friction has long been central to Bad Waitress. Emerging from Toronto’s punk underground, the band have developed a sound that draws from art-punk, post-punk, garage and noise rock without settling comfortably into any one of them. Since releasing Party Bangers: Volume 1 in 2018, they have shared stages with Fucked Up, L7, Rise Against, Wolf Parade and The Bronx.

On In The Hollow, however, some of the confrontation turns inward. The record grew from the isolation of the past several years and finds its members examining old relationships, identity, sexuality and earlier versions of themselves from the perspective of people who have since changed.

The album also draws imagery from the Northwest Territories and Pacific Northwest, where members of Bad Waitress grew up. Dark forests and vast wilderness become a backdrop for songs concerned with uncertainty, memory and transformation.

With “Lovin’ Kind,” Bad Waitress make it clear that five years away have not made them any calmer. Instead, their familiar abrasion has been redirected toward more personal territory, setting the stage for In The Hollow to arrive October 30.