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Confess: Jail

Melodic (Sleaze) Hard Rock/Metal

4.5/5.0

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SG Records
by Craig Hartranft,  26.03.2014

Better than 15 years on, the New Wave of Scandinavian Sleaze Metal train keeps rolling along. Formed in 2008, and after a demo collection and an EP, Sweden's Confess delivers their first long-player, Jail.

Confess: bad hair day.

When it comes to re-imagining 80's sleaze, you have to do more than get the 'look' right which, from examining the picture at the right, Confess surely does. You got to have the musical chops. In the case of Confess, think more leather Motley Crue and less spandex Poison, and definitely left of Bon Jovi.

The ingredients are here: a racing rhythm section, sharp twin guitar leads, and snotty, sneering, vocals remembering punk rock, all wrapped up in good melodies and tight catchy hooks in arrangements and lyric (which, of course, cover the usual sordid and sexual topics of rock). In other words, Confess 'gets it,' and on top of that they write, musically speaking, interesting songs and play quite well. Notable is the guitar work: if you like guitar solos, there's bunches of them. Check out Scream, Back to Hell, Cardiac Arrest, among others. Also done well are the vocal arrangements where Confess know that melody and harmony are equally important as attitude.

While the album is mostly rambunctious melodic heavy metal, Confess does toss in one ballad/anthem with Take Aim, another example of a good vocal arrangement and singing guitar solos. Another interesting song is Intervention, the longest song here. It's a rocker but a bit more laid back than others here. A little over four minutes in, there's this light piano driven segue which develops into something symphonic which, in turn, erupts with a large guitar solo. Finally, Confess cover Tina Turner's What's Love Got To Do With It, giving it a nice hard rock tenor, while retaining the signature melody in the chorus. Welcome a new player in the melodic sleaze metal genre as Confess are pretty fandamntastic. Easily recommended.

Confess - Jail (Album Trailer)

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Welcome a new player in the melodic sleaze metal genre as Confess are pretty fandamntastic.

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The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]