Confession

Life And Death

Written by: MBC on 01/11/2014 23:58:53

It has been three years since the release of Confession’s last album “The Long Way Home”. A lot has happened to the Aussie band since then, most notably lead vocalist Michael Crafter firing the rest of the band members after they allegedly stabbed him in the back. Since this controversial turn of events, the former I Killed The Prom Queen and Bury Your Dead vocalist has chosen to continue his band under the Confession name and hired new musicians for the project. Confession released the follow-up album “Life And Death” earlier this year, but the new version of the band is not necessarily improved, at least that is how it seems on the basis of this sophomore album.

Although “The Long Way Home” was not a metalcore masterpiece, it definitely contained some great moments. It was, however, a display of a relatively generic approach to the genre, which unfortunately is still the case on “Life And Death”. Crafter is not a fantastic vocalist. He screams in a mid-to-low pitch that is rather monotonous to listen to and overall, his delivery is not very strong. It does actually fit the music pretty well though, due to its repetitive nature. The melodic vocals that complimented Crafter on “The Long Way Home” have pretty much been eradicated, perhaps to make it even more clear that this is not the same band as before. The music is generally built around alternating melodic riffs and heavy breakdowns repeated ad nauseam. This formula can be absolutely fine and some great songs can be produced from it, but that never seems to happen on this album.

Lyrically, most of the songs are pretty straight forward depictions of subjects that are personal to Crafter. There are, for instance, a few things in this world which he hates, among them religion and cancer. Not known for a great level of sophistication he lashes out on the things that he cannot stand and gets straight to the point. Consider an excerpt from “Holy War”: "Your faith is fucking dead, I’ll burn your churches to the ground, fuck everything that you stand for, fuck everything that you believe in" - I guess Confession will not be touring with any Christian bands anytime soon. On “Fuck Cancer” (yes the f-word is used quite a bit here) he delves into more personal territory with lyrics about the cancer that has struck his family and the feeling of hopelessness that comes along with it. Kudos to the man for taking on such a heavy subject, but again his delivery is lacking in depth and ferocity to truly force a grip on the listener.

The problem with “Life And Death” then, is really that the songs are not particularly memorable and there is not much to make the album stand out from the hordes that make up this genre, except from a few string sections thrown into the mix here and there. Overall this is a mediocre album from Confession. It does contain some good riffs and breakdowns that will work fine in a moshpit, and people not looking for much more than that might be able to find some enjoyment in “Life And Death”.

6

Download: Still Breathing, Fuck Cancer, Old Blood
For the fans of: Parkway Drive, I Killed The Prom Queen, Hand Of Mercy, For The Fallen Dreams
Listen: Facebook

Release date 20.06.2014
Lifeforce/Mediaskare

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