If go back to Iran, handcuffs are waiting for me, says Nikan Khosravi, frontman of heavy metal band Confess. It could be 20 years, it could be execution - I don't know. Going back to Iran is definitely not an option.
Given the sheer number of massive releases over the past two years, you'd be forgiven for thinking we're due a fallow year at some point. That may be so, but it certainly isn't going to be 2022 - the list of albums with confirmed release dates already reads like a primer for the AOTY, with the likes of Venom Prison, Zeal & Ardor, Sabaton, Rolo Tomassi, Devin Townsend and Crowbar all just in the next few weeks. That's before we even start talking about the massive bands who've hinted at new albums (Slipknot, Rammstein, Avenged Sevenfold, Ghost - we see you) and bands that have conveniently dropped stand-alone singles but are yet to confirm an album release (Arch Enemy, Bleed From Within, Code Orange, Loathe - we're on to you, too). Combined, everything is pointing to 2022 being another year crammed with utter brilliance from all corners of the metal world, and we couldn't be happier about it. To cel
Revenge At All Costs fizzles to life with the sound of TV static and news snippets. Admittedly, such an opening has become a cliché, especially in thrash metal circles, but postpone your eye-rolls. The sampled reports aren’t studio-created facsimiles to make Confess sound more seismic than they actually are; they’re all real pieces of global coverage, documenting the seven years of hell that led up to the Iranians’ third album.Just days after the release of Confess’s last full-length, 2015’s In Pursuit Of Dreams, core members Nikan Khosravi and Arash Ilkhani were arrested in their home country. Their only crime was making anti-establishment, bullheaded metal, for which they were put on trial on charges of blasphemy and propaganda against the state. They endured solitary confinement and interrogations, followed by 18 months in jail before fleeing to Norway and seeking asylum. There they’ve reactivated the band wi