Confess – Destination Addiction | Album Review

“What happens when you’ve survived things that no-one should have to?”: embodying metal’s history as protest music, Iranian/Norwegian outfit Confess are back to mix personal experience with brutal honesty with their fourth album Destination Addiction.

Even before you dig into their back catalogue, the history of Iranian (by way of Norway) metallers Confess is not only inspirational, but fascinating. Charged by the government of their homeland with blasphemy and propaganda against the state due to their music and interviews, frontman Nikan Khosravi and DJ Arash Ilkhani were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards just two weeks after the release of their second album In Pursuit Of Dreams in 2015. Appealing the verdict, fleeing to Turkey and both eventually being granted asylum by Norway in 2019, the duo still face corporal punishment to this day in Iran. Having since tackled the issues and emotions of their exile in 2022’s Revenge At All Costs, the band have been honing their skills freely and pulling together the aftermath of revenge with new album Destination Addiction. 

Cutting straight to the chase with opening track ‘Built On A Grave’, a fiery little headbanger of an opener. Primal percussive grooves are overlaid onto a tension brewing tapping riff before breaking out into some nasty syncopated fury. Lyrically the track is confronting past horror, killing your old life and building a new one on top of the grave of a past life and revisiting the painful history of the band. Singles ‘Slaughterhouse’ and ‘Expedition’ follow and make for an explosive, if slightly repetitive intro to the album. The former plays with a range of dynamic rhythmic shifts and careens into a tumultuous breakdown in its final moments, the latter plays with a spacious chorus and consistent groove metal punch. Single ‘After Goliath’ features celebrated stoner metal guitarist Marzi Montazeri (ex-Phil Anselmo and Illegals, ex-Superjoint Ritual, ex-Exhorder, Heavy As Texas), adding an extra dynamic to the thick guitar tones and a signature solo to boot.

Confess’ sound sits somewhere between the early nought’s new wave of American heavy metal (think the earlier works of Darkest Hour, Lamb of God or Shadows Fall), aspects of early 2000s technical death metal ferocity and the percussive dynamism of nineties groove metal. Touches of nu-metal also make their way in, with band member Arash “Chemical” Ilkhani’s instrumental work being with DJ decks and a sampler, bolstering the dynamics of a track and adding elects of interest over more straightforward rhythmic passages. It’s an interesting cross-section and for the most part it works pretty damn well, the nu-metal influence tying everything together in a genuine way and not coming across as a cheesy gimmick. The band have drafted in legendary Nile drummer George Kollias for these album sessions, who provides his expert talents to help the band expand their technical prowess, sounding even larger with his insane technical drumming. Kollias’ technicality brings an extra edge which helps to keep some of the most lacklustre tracks more engaging, simply due to his ferocious presence.

Destination Addiction was produced by frontman/Guitarist Nikan Khosravi, mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated Alberto De Icaza (Amon Amarth, Clutch, Miss May I, Dead Cross, Upon A Burning Body). For the most part the band sounds on par with the standard metal production, no real complaints about their sound, it does the job nicely and the brutality justice. There are touches of bass in the duo’s sound, but they’re mixed quite low. The feeling is by and large the band could definitely benefit from a greater low-end presence, thickening up some of the groove riffs and chuggy breakdowns, as well as accenting the manic kick drum work. However, the band’s sound is nothing to scoff at and they still provide plenty of meat on the bone.

There are a couple real standouts on the tracklist; ‘Dark On Both Sides’ and ‘Final Lap’ are both expansive centrepieces, showing off the bands’ maturation in songwriting and make for two of the best tracks on the album. There is a lot going on over the length of the songs and they don’t feel like filler, they’re expansive and well thought out compositions. Conversely, ‘Only Shackles To Lose’ is the shortest cut on the album and delivers a tight packaged breakneck fury, hitting at the perfect time as a refreshing palette cleanser before the final track. The album finale,  ‘Breathe In. Breathe Out.’ does not disappoint, closing proceedings in spectacular fashion, really showing off some layered guitar work and choice structuring.

The lyrical content of the album still pulls deeply from the band’s past, opening track ‘Built On a Grave’ and single ‘Slaughterhouse’ rather openly “offering a raw and critical perspective on the political and social turmoil in Iran”. Tracks like ‘Dark On Both Sides’ confront addiction as a coping method and wrestling internal demons, ‘Suicide Song’ wears its title on its sleeve and is about as subtle as a neon billboard but leans into it with an anthemic chorus and flits between syncopated tech-death rhythms into addicting grooves. Generally Confess touch on patterns they see in other aspects of global turmoil, said to be “addressing the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, the war in the Middle East and Europe, and the dangers of terrorism in today’s world”, with their viewpoints landing squarely in empowering the oppressed and standing against tyranny.

Confess add another slab of defiant metal anthems to their back pocket as they continue to embrace their freedoms and play live to their hungry fanbase. Destination Addiction may be a little repetitive at points, but for the most part it’s a very enjoyable experience. Inspirational moments across the album have that authentic electricity of lived experience and conquering truly adverse circumstances that some bands spend years trying to imitate. If you want no bullshit modern metal punishment that screams ‘fuck you’ to the ill’s of the world, then Confess have you well covered.