UMUR "Sour Times" is an EP release by US technical doom/thrash metal act Confessor. The 15:48 minutes long EP was released through Season of Mist in September 2005. The EP is limited to 1000 CD copies. Confessor was originally active in the period 1986 - 1994, but they reunited in 2002, and "Sour Times" is their second release since the reunion.

The music style on the EP is the unique and unmistakable technical doom/thrash metal sound of Confessor. The music is crushingly heavy, yet technically relatively complex, featuring some high pitched vocals in front. Scott Jeffreys vocal performance is a bit more subtle here though than his vocals on "Condemned (1991)". Describing Confessor´s music style on "Sour Times" is a bit difficult, but imagine if early Trouble was combined with the most technical releases by Fates Warning and on top you added some Alice in Chains type harmony vocals and a generally dark atmosphere.

There are 4 audio tracks and one video track on the EP. The opening two tracks "Sour Times" and "Hibernation" are taken off the 2004 "Blueprint Soul" EP which in my world makes both of them rather dispensable if you already own that EP. The fact that both are also featured on the band´s 2nd full-length studio album "Unraveled (2005)", albeit in other versions, doesn´t exactly make their presence here more valuable. They are however excellent tracks both of them, so nothing wrong with the quality. The third track on the EP is a remastered version of "Condemned" from the 1990 demo by Confessor. A great version but if you already have the debut album you already got that song too. So it´s kind of a curiosity more than a highly valuable EP track. The last audio track on the EP is a radio edit version of "Sour Times", which to my ears is totally dispensable. Radio edits are a waste of time if you ask me. The live video of the Trouble cover track "The Last Judgement" is pretty great and actually provides some sort of reason to purchase this EP.

The material on "Sour Times" is of high quality and except for the radio edit version of "Sour Times", I would normally rate the other tracks with 4 star (80%) ratings. All tracks have been released before though and that radio edit track really doesn´t make me happy either so a 3 - 3.5 (65%) star rating is in order.