UMUR Unraveled is the 2nd full-length studio album by technical doom/ thrash metal act Confessor. The album was released in October 2005 through Season of Mist. Southern Lord Records re-released Unraveled in a vinyl version in 2007.

Confessor were quite the unique force on the doom metal scene of the late eighties and early nineties and their debut full-length studio album Condemned (1991) is widely considered a "classic" in the genre. The band unfortunately split-up in 1993 while in the process of recording their 2nd album. Confessor reformed in 2002 and released a couple of EPs before releasing Unraveled which should be considered their comeback to the scene. The album is dedicated to the memory of former Confessor guitarist Ivan Colon who passed away in February 2002 due to cardiac complications. New guitarist is Shawn McCoy. The rest of the lineup is intact.

The production is heavy and powerful. Much warmer than the sound on Condemned. On the other hand why wouldn´t it be? It´s been 14 years since the release of that album and studio techniques have become much better in those years.

Even after 14 years the music on the album is still unmistakably the sound of Confessor. Compared to Condemned the music on Unraveled is not quite as technical allthough tracks like Until Tomorrow and Hibernation beg to differ. Scott Jeffreys unique high pitched ( love him or hate him) vocal style is a bit more subtle on Unraveled and his use of dark harmonies reminds me a bit of the vocal style in Alice in Chains. Especially Sour Times, which has a definite Alice in Chains vibe to it. The basis in the music is still doom metal with technical thrash metal elements though. The 9 tracks on the album are all of good quality but some songs are not as memorable as others. Just like Condemned, Unraveled is an album that takes time to get into though and it´s grown on me considerable from the first time I listened to it ´till today. Highlights on the album include tracks like Cross the Bar, Until Tomorrow, Sour Times and Hibernation.

Unraveled is ultimately a good comeback album by Confessor but it doesn´t exactly reach the hights of it´s predecessor IMO. The fact that 3 of the 9 tracks ( Sour Times, Hibernation and Blueprint Soul) already appeared on the the two EP releases Blueprint Soul (2004) and Sour Times (2004) ( albeit in slightly different versions) isn´t exactly something that makes me smile either. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is still deserved though.

UMUR Sour Times is an EP release by American technical doom/ thrash metal act Confessor. The 15:48 minute long EP was released in September 2005 by Season of Mist. The EP is limited to 1000 copies.

The music on the EP is the unique technical doom/ thrash metal sound of Confessor. The music is brick heavy with some high pitched vocals. More subtle than the vocals on their debut album Condemned (1991) though. Imagine if early Trouble met up with the most technical releases by Fates Warning and added some Alice in Chains type harmony vocals and dark atmosphere.

There are 4 audio tracks and one video track on the EP. The first two tracks Sour Times and Hibernation are taken off the 2004 Blueprint Soul EP which 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 excellent tracks both of them, so nothing wrong with the quality. The third song 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. So it´s kind of a curiosity. The last audio track on the EP is a radio edit version of Sour Times, which IMO is totally dispensable. Radio edits are a waste of time IMO. 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 rate the other tracks with 4 stars. All tracks have been released before though and that radio edit track really doesn´t make me happy either so a 3 - 3.5 star rating is in order.

UMUR Confessor is an EP release by American technical doom/ thrash metal act Confessor. The EP was released in 1992 through Earache Records. The band released their debut full-length studio album Condemned in October 1991 and then participated in the Gods of Grind tour with fellow Earache Records label mates Entombed, Cathedral and Carcass. A very succesful tour which also spawned the Gods of Grind split album in 1992. The Confessor EP was probably released to continue riding the wave of succes that the band where on at the time.

The music style on the EP is Confessor´s unique technical doom/ trash metal style with Scott Jeffreys characteristic high pitched vocals in front.

There are 4 tracks on the 19:19 minute long EP. The first track Condemned is taken directly off the debut album. So if you already have that album there´s nothing new about that one. Great technical doom/ thrash metal track that one. Last Judgement is a Trouble song taken from that band´s 1983 demo while the instrumental Endtime is another Trouble cover taken from Trouble´s debut full-length studio album Psalm 9 (1984). Both covers are given the Confessor tech doom/ thrash metal treatment and are the highlights of the EP. Great material. The last song on the EP is a demo version of Collapse Into Despair which is also featured on the debut album. It´s allright but I prefer the studio album version.

The material on Confessor is of high quality but the inclusion of two tracks from Condemned ( albeit one of them in a demo version that varies a little from the original) does drag my rating down ( the fact that all tracks except the demo track also appear on the Gods of Grind (1992) split album, doesn´t exactly raise my rating either). I would have prefered at least three new tracks. Then I could have lived with one track from Condemned. So a 4 star rating drops to a 3.5. Great EP though.

UMUR Condemned is the debut full-length studio album by American technical doom/ thrash metal act Confessor. The album was released in October 1991 by Earache Records. The original album contained 9 tracks but there´s a Japanese version available with 3 additional bonus tracks.

The music on the album is a very unusual kind of doom metal. First of all the tempo isn´t snail tempo slow. It´s still brick heavy music but the tempo is mostly kept in slow- to mid pace. Secondly the music is quite technical compared to most other releases in the genre. Especially the drumming stands out as very busy and skillfully played, but the rest of the music is also rather intricate. Calling the music on Condemned progressive or technical doom metal wouldn´t be far off the mark. To top it all off there´s the distinct high pitched vocal delivery by Scott Jeffreys. He is the kind of singer that I usually associate with progressive rock/ metal. I´m reminded a bit of Cedric Bixler-Zavala from The Mars Volta. While Scott Jeffreys is a skilled vocalist, his vocal lines are kind of non-melodic and sometimes even close to atonal to my ears, and it will probably be a challenge to some, if they can digest them. If a bit more melody and variation had been put into the vocals, this album could have been even greater than it already is. The melodies do grow on you though, but most likely the album will require several spins before the songs stand out from each other and the melodies unfold.

Another unusual feature on a doom metal album is that the songs are not especially long. Most are about 4 minutes long but that´s only a good thing IMO. There´s not a dull moment in sight. Confessor are not the kind of band that play their riffs on repeat for several minutes. On the other hand some might miss gloomy atmosphere and slow building majestic doom climaxes. The music on Condemned has a more desperate sound to it instead. Many of the riffs on the album are thrash metal inspired but the drums make sure the pace is kept slow enough for this to be called a doom metal album. Most tracks are very technical and there´s no better example than the excellent title track. It´s really refreshing to hear a doom metal album where the influence from Black Sabbath isn´t particularly obvious. Instead the early albums by Trouble seem to have been a great influence on Confessor.

The production lacks a bit of warmth if you ask me, but it´s still powerful and suits the music well.

Condemned is one of the most unique doom metal albums out there. Not only because the music on the album is unusually technical for the genre but also because of the distinct high pitched vocal delivery by Scott Jeffreys. If you want to challenge yourself to some technical/ progressive doom metal, Condemned is a great place to start. A 4.5 star rating is fully deserved. Just beware that Confessor are sure to be an aquired taste.