Album Review: Confessions Of A Traitor – This Pain Will Serve You (Facedown Records)

London metalcore quartet Confessions Of A Traitor will release their new album ‘This Pain Will Serve You’ on May 16th via Facedown Records.

While it’s not always easy to get that excited about metalcore these days, purely because of oversaturation, when a band as strong as Confessions Of A Traitor has new music, excitement is all anyone will be feeling. The Londoners are a mighty band, capable of delivering brutish heaviness, but also immense melody, and almost always wrap this all up in an anthemic way.

Which might all sound ‘par for the course’ for metalcore, but trust me, Confessions Of A Traitor do it better than most and all the proof you need is on this album. Approaching every track with the kind of intensity normally reserved for more extreme efforts and pouring an incredible amount of ion into everything. Alongside that, it’s an album with feeling, and if you’re willing, you can connect to it in unexpected ways. Especially when they’re dropping tracks like Still Haunted, a track that lingers and not just because the melody is so poignant, but because the heavier side of the band feels more intense than ever. It feels weird to use a world like ‘anthemic’ for a track like this, but it fits.

It, alongside a haunting track like Love You Left Behind, dramatic Hail Mary (bleurgh and all), and the blistering outburst that is Half Life are some of the best examples of what Confessions Of A Traitor are capable of when it comes to expressing emotion. Even though the entirety of the album is an emotional experience. It’s just expressed in different, and challenging, ways. Which helps make the album so much more than just another metalcore record.

There’s simply no disliking stompy, groove-infused, and angry sounding efforts like Starve and Fatal Frame. Nor is there anything to be disappointed by with the more traditional structure of Doomsayer, a track with melodic flair, and the persuasive heavy power of Midnight Sun. Every track brings something fresh, interesting, and exciting and you can really tell Confessions Of A Traitor threw their all into this.

Should you need any more convincing of the album’s quality though, especially the anthemic qualities, there’s still more to check out. It really doesn’t get more infectious than the grand Noble Bloom. A mighty track with layers, some of which aren’t surface level, so a bit of digging is required. Nor does it sound more dramatic then with a track like Let It Consume Me, especially because of that big chorus, and dangerous with The Sins I’m Yet To Answer For. All of which, when combined with what has been heard elsewhere, confirms this as an album of the year contender.

Confessions Of A Traitor threw their all into this, and it has well and truly paid off.

Confessions Of A Traitor – This Pain Will Serve You Track Listing:

1. Starve
2. Fatal Frame
3. Doomsayer
4. Midnight Sun
5. Still Haunted
6. Love You Left Behind
7. Noble Bloom
8. Hail Mary
9. Let It Consume Me
10. The Sins I’m Yet to Answer For
11. Half Life

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