ALBUM REVIEW: Revenge At All Costs – Confess

Iranian groove-metallers CONFESS are currently more famous for their headline-generating history than their music. Back in 2015, a mere two weeks after the release of their second album In Pursuit Of Dreams, they found themselves going through hell. Founder Nikan Khosravi and DJ/sampler Arash Ilkhani were arrested on blasphemy charges and spent the next 18 months in prison. After their release, they were able to gain refugee status in Norway and have been there ever since, rebuilding the band with three local musicians. Should they ever return to Iran, Khosravi will receive 74 lashes and they’ll both be locked up for 14 and a half years.

So it isn’t surprising that their long-delayed third album Revenge At All Costs absolutely seethes with anger. Their earlier, pre-imprisonment material is certainly heavy, but it doesn’t have the same white-hot aggression coursing through every song. Taking cues from the likes of LAMB OF GOD, along with a significant thrash influence, Revenge At All Costs is a snarling, bloodthirsty Pitbull of a record.

It starts with a selection of genuine news clips reporting on their backstory, before erupting into life with EVIN. A grinding, malevolent riff and the “you are going to die” cymbal kick off five minutes of whiplash-inducing violence. Khosravi growls and rants about the interrogation process while crunching power-chords and bass-heavy breakdowns rage alongside him. It’s named after the prison where he and Ilkhani were locked up and gets Revenge off to an impressive start.

From there, CONFESS bring several big guns to bear. Phoenix Rises is an animalistic mosh-igniter, played with all the righteous fury that you’d expect from people who once faced the very real possibility of execution by the state. Ransom Note brings the thrash influence to the fretboard-burning fore, but they come into their own on You Can’t Tame The Beast. This stomping mid-record highlight is an instant earworm, and even on the first play it feels like an old friend.

Army Of Pigs is another gem. This penultimate track is a call and response anthem, with a chorus reminiscent of mid-00s metalcore, while Hegemony showcases some nicely dextrous guitar work. What really sets CONFESS apart though, is that the anguish is etched on every note. Recording this must have been incredibly cathartic; they spent a year and a half facing death, and all that pain has been poured into Revenge At All Costs. The relief of being alive and the knowledge they’ll probably never return to their home country is practically carved into this.

But even without their traumatic past, this is still a killer album and one of the first ‘must-hears’ of 2022. This is metal with venom in the lyrics, screaming defiance at the world and it deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. CONFESS are no longer the band that got dealt the worst possible hand, they’re great musicians and songwriters too.

Rating: 8/10

Revenge At All Costs is set for release on January 21st via Rexius Records.

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