B-Side Guys

Rather than trying to escape the internet’s influence, Cyborg9k embraces it fully on “Comet,” a track that transforms online adolescence into interstellar metaphor. It’s the kind of song that could only emerge from someone who remembers both the sound of a dial-up modem and their first space simulator download.

The narrative unfolds like a retro video game plot given unexpected emotional depth. “Change your name/But you’re still the same/You’re their revolutionary golden boy” sets up our protagonist as both hero and potential villain, while the protection of identity – a central theme of internet culture – becomes literal with the line “Protect your face/When you launch out to space.”

What’s particularly striking is how Cyborg9k weaves millennial digital anxiety into space opera. The “Trojan Horse” reference works double duty, calling back to both ancient warfare and computer viruses. Meanwhile, the “hate in your heart” that “could rip colonies apart” feels equally applicable to online community implosions and actual space disasters.

The production maintains this duality, with traditional indie rock instrumentation that somehow manages to sound both organic and like it was birthed in a browser cache. It’s the sonic equivalent of growing up with one foot in the physical world and another in virtual space.

The chorus’s imagery of a “crimson comet cutting through the sky” provides a perfect central metaphor – beautiful, destructive, and ultimately fleeting. It’s the kind of poetic shorthand that works whether you’re thinking about asteroid impacts or viral moments.

But it’s the final refrain that really sticks the landing: “Even spacemen/Even spacemen wanna come back home again.” In just two lines, Cyborg9k captures something essential about both space exploration and internet existence – the simultaneous drive to escape and the inevitable pull of return.

The track’s structure mirrors the experience of falling down an online rabbit hole – each verse taking us further from our starting point until we’re not quite sure how we got here, but we know we’ve traveled light years from where we began.

“Comet” succeeds because it doesn’t treat its digital inspiration as mere novelty. Instead, it uses the language and imagery of online life to explore very human questions about identity, belonging, and the desire to make an impact – even if that impact leaves a crater.

In an age where “extremely online” has become both a lifestyle and a punchline, Cyborg9k has created something that honors the complexity of digital nativity without falling into either celebration or condemnation. “Comet” is a reminder that some of our most human stories now begin with a login screen.