Album Review

Codejak - Times Of ConflictCodejak – Times Of Conflict

Ever since they released their ‘Hell Yeah’ EP back in January 2010 Codejak have been working their arses off touring across the country and over the years have shared the stage with the likes of The Buzzcocks, Sham 69 and more recently Fozzy as well as playing various different tattoo conventions and Extreme Combat events, when Codjak are not busy touring they are busy writing and recording new music and are now gearing up to release their debut album ‘Times Of Conflict’ which is due for release on the 19th November.

The album opens with ‘The Ballad Of Jenny G’ a song which flows at such a great pace where the drums are constant and banging, the guitar riffs are fast and chunky and Dan Turner’s vocals come at you in a twisted spoken word style way with a big gruff sounding outcome, as the song progresses it twists and turns throughout the full 5minute duration where one minute you are listening to the drums and guitars battling it out before everything comes to an almost sudden stop before building up again, vocalist Dan Turner has you in the palm of his hands from start to finish as his vocals chop and change throughout in an almost psychotic way as his vocals change from soft to full on screams with no warning what so ever.

Next up is ‘Hell Yeah’ the song which first got me into Codejak back in 2010 when they released the ‘Hell Yeah’ EP, the song has been reworked slightly for ‘Times Of Conflict’ where some of the arrangements are slightly different and in general the song sounds bigger and better than before, overall it’s a big dirty rock n roll number where once again Dan Turner has you in the palm of his hands as you patiently wait out his next vocal movements, the guitar solo at the 1minute 50seconds mark is extremely breathtaking and truly shows off the musicianship of these guys.

The instrumental work in ‘When I Fall’ is spot on as Codejak proper go for it for a solid 46seconds before taking a 1 second break as Dan Turner’s vocals come in taking you on yet another catchy rock n roll journey.

For ‘Sail Away’ Codejak tone things down a lot but at the same time still manage to blast their way through the next 3-4 minutes in a powerful way which features squealing guitars, solid drums beats and Dan’s unique sounding vocals which still maintain a strong aggressive charge despite the song being mellow for their standards.

‘Pull Out Your Knife’ is another song that has been reworked from the ‘Hell Yeah’ EP, the song opens with Dave Fisher working his bass in such a solid way before the song flows into a catchy and repetitive affair which see’s Dan Turner shout out “Pull out your knife, pull out your knife, pull out your knife and come with me” over and over again in such an aggressive yet pleasing way.

‘Broken Man’ see’s Codejak go down the melodic rock route sounding slightly like the Foo Fighters with a twist, the song is extremely easy to get into and unlike anything else on the album but then again this is Codejak a band who write a bunch of songs which all sound different from each yet equally rock.

‘Serpentine’ is right up there with the likes of ‘Hell Yeah’ and ‘The Ballad Of Jenny G’ as one of the best songs that Codejak have ever created, it is a massive tub-thumper of a track which is bound to go down amazingly well on the live circuit with hundreds and thousands of people shouting out “Yeah, yeah, yeah, be my serpentine” along with Dan Turner, instrumentally the song has some laid back moments and quirky guitar work but in true Codejak style for every bit of laid back music they lay down they double up on the heaviness moments later.

‘Start Again’ is a great catchy number with Dan telling the story of how he would like to go back to when he was young and start again, ‘Falling Back From Grace’ will have you shouting the catchy title vocals with Dan, whilst ‘Sell My Soul’ see’s Dan out do himself vocally in a fast flowing way.

The album closes exactly the same way as their EP closed with the laid back ‘Little Boy’, the song is very eerie sounding and as the song fades out you will have find yourself singing “How do I get out of here alive” before reaching for the play button to listen to the masterpiece that is ‘Times Of Grace’ again.

‘Times Of Grace’ is a solid album from start to finish, it features 11 tracks and flows for just under 50 minutes, you can tell that the band have put everything into it and I expect 2013 to be a big year for Codejak after word gets around on how great their debut album is.

5/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

Dan Turner
Dave Turner
Dan Clark
Dave Fisher
 Track Listing
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
 Band Related Links
Codejak Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?