CD: “Times of Conflict” by Codejak

Where to start? These Northern chaps won “Best Band” Award & “Best Song” Award in the Cumbria Music Awards in December 2009, and now they have released “Times Of Conflict”. This album is a cracking slice of hard rock with its husky, almost sleazy vocals, and even better the album is easy to get into without being commercial or a sell out. Not mention being dark and a little bit twisted!!!

With parallels being drawn to Therapy?, the comparison is not overly obvious. But the closing track, “Little Boy”, is wrong. It will possibly leave you thinking about Troublegum and Infernal Love. Not necessarily musically, but certainly with its imagery. But I am jumping the gun here. These alternative alco rockers have got a great album that will sit nicely on the shelf with a number of hard rocking alternative bands that might nestling up there.

Opening with “The Ballad of Jenny G”, with Dans vocals bringing a certainly rough and ready approach to the rocking backdrop. The drum beat hooks you in, and the guitars drive you forward into this slightly twisted love story.The sleaze is turned up for “Hell Yeah” with it’s carefully delivered vocals giving it that extra dirrty (extra “r” for effect!) feeling. Not to mentioned the great guitar work keeping the listener on their toes.

Things slow down for “Sail Away”, which from what I can tell is a love story gone wrong, perhaps an obvious misunderstanding – or blind naivety.

This is directly followed by what I can only describe as a fight song, “Pull Out Your Knife Out”, probably the crowd pleaser at a live show, with it’s possiblity for anthemic chanting. Opening with a bassline, punctuated by guitar, with Dan asking “sing with me”, followed by “Pull out your knife, and come with me”. Simple. Aggressive. Bound to be a crowd pleaser!

“Serpentine” is the odd one out for me on the album, with it’s almost Spanish guitar sounding interlude (I know guitar me). But still maintains that heavy and gritty feel that permeates throughout the album.

“Start Again” comes across as the slow track of the album with its opening, as Dan sings about what seems to be regret, yearning for a previous life. “I want to go back to how it was before, when I was young….and I would start again”. The energy returns, for “Falling From Grace”, again with some great riffs, and hooks, and a smattering of acoustic mid-way through

Closing proceedings with “Little Boy” starts of as a mellow laid back track. But your view will change when you listen to the lyrics. Let’s just say “How do I get out of here alive?”. Anyone remember “Diane” by Therapy? It’s a different “wrong” to be fair, but wrong nonetheless.

I have not mentioned every track, just those that stood out to me. This does not mean they are not worth listening to, as the whole album works and flows very well, and it is not surprising they are receiving accolades for their work. The album, as mentioned is dark, holding it’s hard rock attitude high with it’s alternative edgey feel, plus they describe it themselves as having twisted riffery – what’s not to love! Thumbs up from me, and I didn’t know that I needed more Codejak in the collection.

The album is released 19th November from the usual outlets; Amazon, iTunes, Spotify.

Line Up
Dan – Vocals/Guitar
Dave – Drums/Backing
Dan C – Lead Guitar
Dave F – Bass.

Tracks
1. The Ballad Of Jenny G
2. Hell Yeah
3. When I Fall
4. Sail Away
5. Pull Out Your Knife
6. Broken Man
7. Serpentine
8. Start Again
9. Falling Back From Grace
10. Sell My Soul
11. Little Boy

Links
http://www.codejakmusic.com/
http://www.facebook.com/codejak

Words and fawning by Jon.