I find it quite ironic and funny at the same time, that I’ll be reviewing a band that I worked with 10 years ago in the United Kingdom through an old label I used to own, even before I came back to the Lord.
Confessions Of A Traitor are certainly one of those bands that many of us have never heard from, unless you are following the scene in the UK, however that goes for most bands if you really haven’t been looking for them.
Formerly known as C.O.A.T. the band signed with southern Californian label Facedown Records earlier this year in 2022, unbeknownst to my surprise as, dude I living in England for a long time and it only just clicked for me, when I was deleting previous works from my previous label. The group fit into the category as metalcore, which for a label such as Facedown Records, who would have guessed….. (slight sarcasm).
Track Listing:
- Punishing Myself Before God Does 4:10
- Hearts of Stone 3:33
- Lovecraft 3:44
- Forever Hollow feat. Brian Wille 4:03
- Peacekeeper 3:22
- To Care for Those Who Cared for Us 3:42
- The New Holland Haunting 3:12
- A Place Where Your Hope Dies 3:24
- Death’s Door 4:31
- TVA 3:59
Members:
- Tony Nagal – Bass
- Jacob Brand – Guitar
- Jack Darnell – Guitar
- Stephen MacConville – Vocals
- Sebastian Olrog – Drums
The album commences with their debut single and title track Punishing Myself Before God Does, I’m seriously blown away on how far they have come. Melodic metalcore at its finest. Bombarding licks and breakdowns that are very well put together.
A great mix of clean and aggressive vocals used, the stand out tracks are Hearts Of Stone, Lovecraft, The New Holland Haunting and Forever Hollow.
I usually pull albums apart from track to track, however in this instance, I find it severely difficult as the whole concept doesn’t change often, neither does the structures of the songs in themselves. However, for what it is, Confessions Of A Traitor have shown their maturity in how metalcore these days is!! Especially in these modern terms, it has continued on its merry way and is what we have come to expect for a band to hit the world stage.
Production is great and well put together, their heaviness is portrayed in the overall mixing and mastering process, which gives them that ultimate feeling of reaching the level that as I mentioned a few sentences ago, that their quality has finally hit the world stage.
Christian Sullivan 9/10 – The Metal Onslaught Magazine