Music News: Iranian/Norwegian Metallers Confess Unleash New Video For ‘Hegemony’!
Hot off the back of the release of their latest album, “Revenge At All Costs”, Iranian/Norwegian quintet Confess have released a brand new video for the track ‘Hegemony’! When asked about the track, frontman Nikan Khosravi had this to say:
Hegemony is an anthem to all the freedom fighters! Those who know that they can’t just be passive and don’t want to be just an audience!
I personally do believe that before setting anyone free first we should set ourselves free from all the imagery chains that society, politics and religion that put on my hands and feet. That’s when you can be that flame that can light up the millions!
Describing themselves as a “five-piece street protest”, Confess frontman Khosravi and DJ/sampler Arash Ilkhani have experienced political persecution first-hand. “Revenge at All Costs” is a cry of outrage in the form of chunky down-tuned riffs marinated in the Norwegian winter.
The journey started in junior high school in Tehran when Nikan got a CD from a classmate. It contained music videos by metal bands from the 90s and 2000s. “I was fascinated by the sound of the genre.”, he states. “Ever since this music has been the centre of my life.” Nikan and Arash started the band as teenagers in 2010, releasing their first album “Beginning of Dominion” in 2012. Their early sound gravitated towards old-school death metal and 90s hardcore, always with some grooviness to it.
Nikan started his own label “Opposite Records” in 2014. Up until now, this could sound like the story of any European band. But change the context and being a metal musician in Iran could mean anything from government surveillance to execution. Arrest and prison followed the release of the band’s second album “In Pursuit of Dreams” in 2015. This led to the pair being arrested and facing execution on charges of blasphemy in one of Iran’s harshest prisons.
Fast forward to 2018, when both Nikan and Arash obtained refugee status in Norway. Confess started experimenting with seven strings and adding modern death metal sounds. But the groovy headbanging spirit of their musical DNA is very much alive. Confess has played in public without fear of repercussions ever since. After several concerts in Norway which included opening for Mayhem at Festspillene i Nord, the band have been seeing the fruits of their labour met with glowing praise with the likes of Metal Hammer stating the album “may be one of 2022’s most important releases”.
Speaking about the new album, Nikan had this to say:
We’re so happy to drop the album! “Revenge At All Costs” is exactly what it says in the title! It took me almost seven years and countless versions of it to finish it, and I couldn’t be happier with the result! We worked with our friend Erling Malm as the producer/mixing engineer and the legendary Machine, who mastered the album and put his magical touch on it at the end! His work with bands like Lamb of God and Suicide Silence had a huge impact on us growing up.
