Toronto punk quartet Bad Waitress has announced its first full-length album in five years, with In The Hollow scheduled for release on October 30, 2026, through Stomp Records. The announcement follows the arrival of lead single “Lovin’ Kind,” a compact, abrasive track that signals a darker and more introspective direction for the Canadian group.
The self-produced album follows 2021’s No Taste and builds on a period in which Bad Waitress expanded its profile beyond Toronto’s underground punk circuit. The band — Kali-Ann Butala, Katelyn Molgard, Moon and Nicole Cain — has previously shared stages with acts including Fucked Up, L7, Rise Against, Wolf Parade and The Bronx.
Bad Waitress Returns With ‘Lovin’ Kind’
Released on August 31 alongside a music video, “Lovin’ Kind” runs for two minutes and 26 seconds and combines elements of art punk, post-punk, garage punk and noise rock.
Bad Waitress recorded the track with engineer Josh Korody at Wychwood Sound in Toronto, while the band handled production itself.
The song takes the framework of a conventional love song and turns it into a tense examination of attraction, resentment and emotional self-sabotage.
“Tell you I love you / Then destroy you,” Butala sings early in the track, establishing a relationship in which intimacy and hostility exist side by side.
That conflict continues with the refrain, “I’m not the lovin’ kind,” as the song moves between vulnerability and an impulse to push another person away.
Rather than resolving whether the relationship is romantic, destructive or knowingly caught between the two, the track leaves that tension intact.
Toronto Punk Roots Shape the Band’s Sound
Bad Waitress developed its reputation within Toronto’s independent punk scene, building an audience through energetic live performances and a deliberately abrasive musical style.
The group emerged with Party Bangers: Volume 1 in 2018 before moving into heavier territory with No Taste in 2021.
Its sound has drawn comparisons with L7, Babes In Toyland, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, METZ, Fugazi and The Stooges, combining distorted guitars with a forceful rhythm section and vocals that shift between melody and confrontation.
New Noise Magazine previously described the band’s approach as an “all-out punk assault,” while Canadian publication Exclaim! characterised its development as “a new type of rage.”
‘In The Hollow’ Explores Isolation, Identity and Change
While “Lovin’ Kind” introduces the album through the dynamics of an unstable relationship, In The Hollow takes a broader look at the experiences that shaped the band during its five-year gap between full-length records.
The album grew partly from periods of collective and personal isolation experienced by the musicians in recent years.
Its members revisited past relationships, memories and earlier versions of themselves while considering how their identities and circumstances had changed.
Canadian Wilderness Influences Album Imagery
Although Bad Waitress remains closely associated with Toronto, some of the imagery behind In The Hollow reaches considerably farther across Canada.
The Northwest Territories and Pacific Northwest, where members of the group grew up, influenced the album’s atmosphere. Forests, wilderness and more mystical imagery became ways of expressing themes of isolation and uncertainty.
Against those landscapes, the record addresses personal subjects including relationships, sexuality, identity and the sometimes uncomfortable process of looking back at earlier stages of life.
Rather than presenting personal transformation as a simple break between past and present, the album focuses on the uncertainty involved in deciding which parts of a former identity remain meaningful and which can be left behind.
Bad Waitress Turns Its Confrontational Energy Inward
For Bad Waitress, the new material represents an evolution rather than a retreat from the confrontational style that defined its earlier work.
The band has retained the distorted guitars, forceful rhythms and unpredictable shifts associated with its previous releases, but In The Hollow redirects more of that tension towards internal conflicts.
“Lovin’ Kind” provides the first indication of that approach, using a turbulent relationship to explore the uneasy space between wanting intimacy and resisting it.
With In The Hollow due October 30 through Stomp Records, Bad Waitress is returning after five years with a record shaped by isolation, changing relationships and self-examination while retaining the volatile punk sound that established the quartet in Toronto’s independent music scene.
George Orwell is a writer and contributor covering politics, society, culture, and current affairs. His work focuses on providing clear analysis and thoughtful commentary on the issues shaping modern Britain and the wider world, helping readers better understand complex topics.
