REVENGE AT ALL COSTS.

• Author: Ciaramella, C.J.
• Position: ALBUM

The Iranian metal band Confess' third album, Revenge at All Costs, is so brutal that the Iranian government sentenced them to 74 lashes, which is probably--horrifyingly--a better advertisement for it than any promotional materials their record label could cook up.

In 2015, Iranian authorities arrested Confess singer and guitarist Nikan Khosravi and his bandmate Arash llkhani. The two metalheads were charged with blasphemy and anti-government propaganda for the band's pointed antireligious lyrics and criticisms of the state. Khosravi spent 18 months in Tehran's infamous Evin prison while awaiting trial, three of them in solitary confinement.

After they were found guilty and sentenced to six years behind bars, Khosravi and llkhani were granted political asylum in Norway and fled their home country. They channeled the whole experience into their third album. In a genre where aggression is sometimes an affectation or escape fantasy, Confess' anger is concrete, political, and personal. It's not a put-on when Khosravi screams on "Phoenix Rises," the album's third track...