“Confess“, the latest effort by Iowan outfit Too Pure To Die, is a lot like making a cocktail from some of modern metal(core)’s strongest ingredients. You’ve got the Southern Pantera-aping ala Throwdown, the Sunset Strip inspired sleaze of Avenged Sevenfold and the blunt in your face song structuring and lyrical tenacity of Terror and Hatebreed.
Suffice it to say, identity is not one of Too Pure To Die‘s strong suits. But if thick layers of production gloss, the occasional nu-metal riff and moderately cliche electronic ambiance don’t deter you; you’ll find that despite the homogenized nature of this release, it’s really not all that bad. While an album like this may tend to underachieve in terms of creativity and hunger, it does capture the same aggressive energy and breakneck momentum that launched a thousand walls of death (and even a few thousand more shitty haircuts.)
If you’re able to put originality aside and want to get your mosh on without afterthought, then look no further. “Confess” packs as many of metalcore’s hallmarks as it does it’s cliches and for what it does wrong, it does just as much right. Basically, for as diluted (*cough*) as Too Pure To Die‘s mixture of metal and metalcore’s finest points may be, it still delivers quite a kick – just don’t expect to be knocked on your ass by it.
