Track listing
- 1 A.D. 2:50
- 2 Looking Down the Barrel of Today 2:41
- 3 Seven Enemies 2:05
- 4 In the Walls 2:10
- 5 From Grace We've Fallen 2:41
- 6 Us Against Us 2:04
- 7 Something's Off 3:49
- 8 Remember When 2:40
- 9 Slaughtered in Their Dreams 2:16
- 10 The Apex Within 2:29
- 11 Walking the Knife 2:36
- 12 Dissonance 2:12
- 13 Serve Your Masters 2:55
- Total length: 33:28
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10 Issues
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The Concrete Confessional 33 rpm
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The Concrete Confessional 33 rpm
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The Concrete Confessional [clear vinyl] 33 rpm, Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition
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The Concrete Confessional [gold vinyl] 33 rpm, Colored Vinyl, Exclusive, Limited Edition
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The Concrete Confessional [red vinyl] 33 rpm, Colored Vinyl, Exclusive, Limited Edition
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The Concrete Confessional [white vinyl] 33 rpm, Colored Vinyl, Exclusive, Limited Edition
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The Concrete Confessional Limited Edition, Picture Disc
6 Reviews
A decent album but it ends without any fanfare, I knew it would be a short one as I read something about it beforehand but the last song however good it was did not feel like the closer at all and songs while all at least decent mostly merged into one for me. I did like much more one of their older albums - Supremacy, the same concept but executed better. The highlights were The Apex Within, A.D. Serve Your Masters. Still I'd recommend this as it's a fun listen and the band itself is like two classes above another ''moshcore'' band with metal ''by tough guys for tough guys'' Emmure which is just not good at all for me.
Published
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Hatebreed - The Concrete Confessional (2016)
I went into this album completely blind, having never listened to Hatebreed before. I had decided that it was time for some new music, so I headed off to my local Best Buy with $20 to spend on whatever I found to be worthy of purchase. As I flipped through the CD's, like I always do during my visits, I stumbled upon the first single from the new Hatebreed album, entitled A.D.. It sounded pretty cool, and including a live version of a song entitled "Destroy Everything," I didn't think twice about paying $1.99 for the single. Then, I decided to take a risk and buy both the single and their full length, released the prior week, entitled The Concrete Confessional.Naturally, as I had never listened to Hatebreed, I had just assumed that they were Metalcore and nothing else. My first listen of the album had completely shattered all of my expectations. There are moments on this album that Thrash, Groove, rip, tear, and decimate the listener with an onslaught of heavy metal. Of course Hatebreed is obviously rooted in Hardcore...and that should come as no surprise, especially considering that Metalcore itself is rooted in Hardcore. In this aspect, expect to see no songs clock in over 4 minutes...in fact, only one song is over 3 minutes.
The songs here are straightforward and will hit you with it's "main" riff within the first 30 seconds. Speaking of riffs, this album has them. If you are into breakdowns, this album is essentially going to be heaven for you. With very few guitar leads on this record, the riffs are the main focus. The guitar tone is fairly good, and should please fans of crisp and crunchy musical production.
The vocals took a while to grow on me, but the more I listened to the album the easier it became to like them. There are plenty of catchy hardcore choruses here (think Anthrax gang vocals). Here Jamey Jasta reminds me of Matt Drake from Evile, Tom Araya from Slayer, or at times Rob Flynn from Machine Head, just to give a few points of reference. Jamey takes on several forms, even sounding reminiscent of Max Cavalera on the chorus of "From Grace We've Fallen." While the lyrics aren't necessarily made up from the most complex ideas, they give some good food for thought. I cannot sit through a play-through of this album without headbanging, or yelling the lyrics like a fool. In this aspect particularly, the vocals succeed.
Musically, this record sounds very much like a modern Slayer record (albeit having much cooler riffs, think Dying Fetus quality). In retrospect I could not call Hatebreed a Thrash Metal band...but on this record they have almost every aspect to be considered as such. I would warn off the "Metal Elitests" especially for tracks like "Seven Enemies" which have riffs, and vocals that are rooted heavily in Hardcore. However, if you're an open-minded metalhead, much like myself...then you should have no problem with this.
From a song to song standpoint there are a few obvious favorites on this album, solely because they riff so hard: including "Seven Enemies," "In The Walls," "Walking The Knife," and "Serve Your Masters."
So in conclusion, this album rules. I liked it a lot more than I had originally thought I would, and I know plenty of metalheads who would think the same if they gave this a spin! Retrospectively speaking, now that I have a had a chance to listen to their entire back catalogue, this is still my favorite Hatebreed album. However, The Rise of Brutality was also awesome, and is a close second.
Recommended To: Fans of Sepultura/Soulfly (any work of Max Cavalera), Slayer, Machine Head, Pantera, modern Thrash Metal, and fans of Hardcore.
Favorite Track Picks: Seven Enemies, Something's Off, Walking The Knife, and Serve Your Masters.
Published
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"The Concrete Confessional" is the 7th full-length studio album by US hardcore act Hatebreed. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Entertainment in May 2016. It´s the successor to "The Divinity of Purpose" from 2013 and features the same lineup as the predecessor. "The Concrete Confessional" was produced by Chris "Zeuss" Harris. "Zeuss" has produced every album by Hatebreed since "The Rise of Brutality (2003)".
Stylistically "The Concrete Confessional" features few surprises if you´re already familiar with the last couple of albums by Hatebreed. It´s aggressive and groove laden hardcore featuring quite a few thrash metal styled riffs (Slayer often comes to mind, when isolating the riffs). Lead vocalist Jamey Jasta has a powerful and raw delivery, which is slightly one-dimensional (save for a short clean vocal part on "Something's Off"), but very effectful. In true hardcore style the lyrics are dealing with subjects like corruption, political issues, social injustice, and how to overcome personal problems.
The material on the 13 track, 33:28 minutes long album is generally memorable and well written. Most tracks are instantly catchy and you can shout along to them almost immediately. The quality is generally high but there are some tracks which stand out more than others, and some tracks which aren´t fully up to par with the best material on the album. It´s not that there´s anything bad on the album, but some tracks just feel a bit like filler. But maybe it has more to do with the relatively one-dimensional nature of the tracks, and the fact that my attention begins to wander about half way through the album, because of lack of variation between tracks. So it´s a more overall stylistic issue than an issue with individual tracks. When that is said the short playing time and generally short length of the tracks help "The Concrete Confessional" to be an entertaining album through most of the playing time. I´d mention the two opening tracks "A.D." and "Looking Down the Barrel of Today" and the closing track "Serve Your Masters" as some of the highlights of the album.
The sound production is clear, detailed, and very powerful. The massive heavy sound is perfectly designed for the music. Upon conclusion "The Concrete Confessional" is another quality release by Hatebreed and they prove once again why they are such a prolific act on the scene. As mentioned I could have wished for a bit more variation in the songwriting department, but it´s nothing too serious and looked upon individually every track on the album is entertaining and well written, so a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is fully deserved.
Stylistically "The Concrete Confessional" features few surprises if you´re already familiar with the last couple of albums by Hatebreed. It´s aggressive and groove laden hardcore featuring quite a few thrash metal styled riffs (Slayer often comes to mind, when isolating the riffs). Lead vocalist Jamey Jasta has a powerful and raw delivery, which is slightly one-dimensional (save for a short clean vocal part on "Something's Off"), but very effectful. In true hardcore style the lyrics are dealing with subjects like corruption, political issues, social injustice, and how to overcome personal problems.
The material on the 13 track, 33:28 minutes long album is generally memorable and well written. Most tracks are instantly catchy and you can shout along to them almost immediately. The quality is generally high but there are some tracks which stand out more than others, and some tracks which aren´t fully up to par with the best material on the album. It´s not that there´s anything bad on the album, but some tracks just feel a bit like filler. But maybe it has more to do with the relatively one-dimensional nature of the tracks, and the fact that my attention begins to wander about half way through the album, because of lack of variation between tracks. So it´s a more overall stylistic issue than an issue with individual tracks. When that is said the short playing time and generally short length of the tracks help "The Concrete Confessional" to be an entertaining album through most of the playing time. I´d mention the two opening tracks "A.D." and "Looking Down the Barrel of Today" and the closing track "Serve Your Masters" as some of the highlights of the album.
The sound production is clear, detailed, and very powerful. The massive heavy sound is perfectly designed for the music. Upon conclusion "The Concrete Confessional" is another quality release by Hatebreed and they prove once again why they are such a prolific act on the scene. As mentioned I could have wished for a bit more variation in the songwriting department, but it´s nothing too serious and looked upon individually every track on the album is entertaining and well written, so a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is fully deserved.
Published
What a downstep from the previous album in my books. There are a few good ones (Slaughtered in Their Dreams being the one stuck into my mind), but somehow this album feels like they lost something. There is a good core edge to it, but at the same time they have added a good bunch what I would call screamo. And this doesn't bring anything good to the material imho. Quite frankly, this was rather boring apart from a frew tracks.
Published
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1
A.D.
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2
Looking Down the Barrel of Today
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3
Seven Enemies
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4
In the Walls
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5
From Grace We've Fallen
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6
Us Against Us
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7
Something's Off
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8
Remember When
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9
Slaughtered in Their Dreams
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10
The Apex Within
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11
Walking the Knife
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12
Dissonance
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13
Serve Your Masters
As always, everything is heavy, super aggressive, anthemic and full of boastful lyrics in classic Hatebreed style (Looking Down the Barrel of Today, A.D., From Grace We’ve Fallen, Seven Enemies, Something’s Off, Us Against Us, Dissonance, Walking the Knife)... as they say: "if it is not broken, why fix it?".
Here and there though there are also these little wicked melodies (in the style of the two previous records) that make these songs a little more incisive and memorable while not losing a shred of aggressiveness and ferocity.
MY RATE: ★★★★½ ~ 8.5/10
FAVORITE SONG: Us Against Us
Published
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Catalog
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30 Apr 2024
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29 Mar 2024
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14 Mar 2024
1 Mar 2024
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1
A.D.
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2
Looking Down the Barrel of Today
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3
Seven Enemies
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4
In the Walls
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5
From Grace We've Fallen
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6
Us Against Us
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7
Something's Off
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8
Remember When
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9
Slaughtered in Their Dreams
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10
The Apex Within
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11
Walking the Knife
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12
Dissonance
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13
Serve Your Masters
26 Feb 2024
25 Feb 2024
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