Alesana have, for a long time now, been a band which simultaneously achieve to be both quite underground and very popular. You never really see Alesana posters around anywhere, and there seem to be very few interviews with them in music magazines, and yet they’ve managed to get 2.6 million likes on Facebook. If you are one of those 2.6 million and have been, like many others, been waiting for another full-length Alesana release (their last was in 2011) and a conclusion to their trilogy of the story of Annabel, then oh boy are you about to have a good day.
First things first: if you are looking for an Alesana album, that is what you are going to get. That and nothing more. All of the elements that you would have found on Of Frail Wings Of Vanity And Wax are still very much there. The almost wretched screamed vocals of Dennis Lee contrasted next to the angelic melodic singing of Shawn Mike, even with the spoken word passages that were such a staple in 2010s The Emptiness. From the very moment that Lee’s screams kick in on opening track ‘It Was A Dark And Stormy Night’, a wave of nostalgia hits you – absolutely nothing seems to have changed in the style of this band, and if you enjoyed their previous work, you will enjoy this exactly as much.
The riffs are still as solid as ever. Just solid – nothing particularly technically progressive, but in an Alesana album anything more than the headbang-inducing, razor-sharp hooks and the occasional breakdown would just be out of place, and a bit ridiculous. Songs like ‘Comedy of Errors’ and ‘Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen’ are perfect examples of Alesana just being Alesana (if you can get past the lyrics “Excuse me are you a maniac? I am and I’m ok with that” in ‘Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen’) and doing it really rather well. Seven minute long epic ‘The Puppeteer’ also stands out.
The only real difference between this and the rest of the music Alesana have produced is the increase in production quality. Especially with their earlier works it felt a bit like they could have done with sounding a bit cleaner, more polished, and finally they are at a point where they do. There are plenty of metal fans out there who have said that Alesana were one of those bands that introduced them to heavier music nearly a decade ago – whether you are one of those people or not, this will be a good listen, and if you are then Confessions will not disappoint your thirst for decent nostalgia.
