Confess: Jail

With Jail being released through the Italian label, SG Records, the first thing that surprised me about Confess, is that they're Swedish - surely a quick-fire guarantee of success from a band ploughing a melodic rock furrow? Damn right! Sure, Jail is content to rip off, chew up and spit out a host of Skid Row-isms, out Poison early Poison, throw in a Gn'R swagger and strut like it's 1987. However if the date on the back of this CD didn't say 2014, I'd swear this lot were indeed from the Sunset Strip and that Jail was 27 years old; so authentic is the stench of bourbon and sweat soaked hairspray!

Crammed with high-kicking sing along fare that has your head bobbing and your groin throbbing, guitarists Denver and Blomman (I'll let you decide which of these names are real…) are a mighty twin fret attack; licks flowing, tricks glowing, while you can easily picture drummer Samael twirling his sticks and grinning like a loon through the Danger Danger like slowie "Take Aim". Bassist Lucky (isn't that a dog's name??) vibrates in a way the good girls would be too embarrassed to admit they like, while singer (and the only one to afford a double-barrel moniker) John Elliot (what happened to the cool stage names??) is the ace in the pack. J.E. (as we'll call him from now on) brings just the right amount of snot nosed attitude, just the desired level of bandana adorned hip swaying and exactly the helping of sex appeal the doctor cowered in the corner to hide from. Potent? Just like a rabid dog on heat - that's how potent!

Romp through the riff infested grit of "Bloodstained Highway", bop your booty to the cleverly titled "Intervention (Sin & Tonic Part 2)" (no, I've no idea if there's a part 1 hiding somewhere - Confess probably lost it in a card game…) and stomp defiantly to the brutish "Back To Hell", where a spiralling guitar attack leaves you in quite a tizzy! All sound a bit throwaway? Not a bit of it. Sample the clever segue from the "Look What The Cat Dragged In" (ahem) borrow of "Scream" via a classy Slash meets Tesla acoustic rush into the full-pelt Faster Pussycat with sharper claws of "Pay Before I Go", to discover a band with craft as well as crass.

It might not be the done thing in 2014 to admit that an album that sounds like 1987 is a killer, however if confessing that I love this band sends me to jail, then I'll happily do my time…as long as I can take this album with me…please warden, I promise to be good!

Track Listing
1. Pray For The Prey
2. Relationshit
3. Scream
4. Pay Before I Go
5. Take Aim
6. Bloodstained Highway
7. Setting Sails
8. Back To Hell
9. Got Lucky
10. Cardiac Arrest
11. Get Me Down
12. Intervention (Sin & Tonic, Pt.2)
13. What's Love Got To Do With It

Added: October 19th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Confess online
Hits: 1937
Language: english

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