Album Review: A Killer's Confession - The Indifference Of Good Men

Of everything that has happened in music over the last ten years or so, I think what has depressed me more than anything is the success of Five Finger Death Punch. Sure, it's easy enough for me to avoid them, but their influence has seeped beyond the outlines of their tattoos, and has infected so much of the mainstream of rock music. Nickelback was not fun either, but they didn't drag rock down the way that FFDP's roid-rage bro-metal has. I feel dumber every time I come across one of their songs, and I feel sad every time another band has taken up that mantle, rather than making music that has more feeling, more appeal, and more artistic merit than that dreck.

A Killer's Confession does follow in some of those footsteps. Their music is aggressive radio rock that features some gruffly growled vocals, a song about doing drugs, and one titled "H.C. T**s", which shows you where they're coming from.

They are a band of two minds. They have songs like "Numb", which is a hit in the making. It's got a good sound, solid hooks, and an appeal that's easy to see. But then they follow that up with "Trust Me", which is a dirty wash of buzzing guitars and oddly barked vocals that doesn't sound one iota like the same band. The former is a good song that makes a strong case for the band, and the latter is a noisy waste of my time.

I've never used drugs, but I wonder if "Cocaine" is something a band member heard after getting a bad batch, because it's one ugly song. I can't make out enough of the lyrics to tell if it's a drug anthem or a warning, and I didn't like the song enough to bother looking it up. If you can't make it clear without a lyric sheet, you haven't done a good enough job as a vocalist.

There are a couple of solid radio singles here, in the aforementioned, "I Wish", and "Reanimated", although I could well do without ever hearing the trap percussion on that one ever again. So there are some songs here that could get some attention, and that show potential, but they get lost when the band seems unclear of their own identity. I don't hear how those good songs connect to the more angry and violent numbers, nor do I quite get the appeal of that style. I am not an angry person, and I have never felt the need to rage against anything, so that entire approach is completely lost on me. Factor that in to whatever else I have to say.

So what it comes down to it this. For me, there are a couple songs that show me A Killer's Confession can write the sort of mainstream rock the charts are looking for, but there's also plenty here that isn't intended for me. Not one bit. If you like FFDP at all, this will be far more up your alley than mine.