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Contradiction > The Voice of Hatred > Reviews
Contradiction - The Voice of Hatred

Bone-dry - 76%

Felix 1666, December 2nd, 2016
Written based on this version: 2005, CD, Armageddon Music (Digipak)

A great portion of bone-dry thrash metal and a good drink is always a good combination. Well, I do not know what other people's fridge offers, but there can be no doubt that Contradiction contribute exactly this kind of thrash. The humourless shouting of Koffer and the targeted guitars make clear that the band is concentrated on the essentials. That's a good thing, because the rare moments that show a different facet of the formation are rather flawed. The melodic and wailing chorus of "Crimes" is indeed a crime, on the same level as high treason and child abuse. The entire song falls short of expectations and its a capella arrangement at the end reveals the limits of Koffer. Yet this tune does not represent the album.

"Nations of Fear" shows much more how rather slow-moving choruses of the band leave an impact. It sounds a little bit like the less rapid version of Pro-Pain's "Foul Taste of Freedom", but there are thousands of worse tunes to lean on. The profound riff of the chorus marks a stark contrast to the staccato guitars of the bridge. Koffer delivers the extra dose of hoarse aggression and the result makes me feel good. The minimalist hardcore attitude of the band shimmers through many compositions and it lends the album a certain brutality. Its undisguised and direct character goes hand in hand with the simple and unmistakable artwork. Wuppertal, the formation's home base, is not a really great city (350.000 inhabitants) and it has a nice unique feature (the so-called "Schwebebahn", I never tire of praising this construction), but the album seems to originate from the slums of a gigantic metropole.

Contradiction show that they are able to combine edgy riffs with more or less frictionless melody lines. Thanks to this ability, "The Voice of Hatred" brings some very interesting pieces to light. The rasping staccato of the title track's guitars blows with violence, but the rather thoroughful "Arguments" also takes the listener on an exciting trip. Slighly bulky guitars during the bridge lead to a surprisingly harmonic chorus. The concluding melody line with its slightly desperate character completes the picture. I mention these details, because Contradiction offer a fairly broad spectrum within the narrowly defined framework. Inter alia the catchiness of "Falling Down" is remarkable and the integration of a radio voice also comes unexpected. Indeed, the vast majority of the tunes hits the listener like a precisely working hammer. Only "Privacy" sucks. Its one-tone-riffing, which dominates broad parts of the song, fails completely to evoke any kind of emotions. A fairly good instrumental part comes too late to repair the damage.

Anyway, the album scores with a lot of strong tracks and the production indicates that professional sound engineers were at work. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with each and every output of the band. But as far as I can see, this is one of the most impressive works of the guys. But I do not want to go too far. So here comes my less daring statement. Those who listen to the two songs at the end, the pulsating, aggressive "Engines of Greed" and the pleading "Future" will probably agree that there is no Contradiction album with a better ending.

Too much fist, too little finesse - 63%

autothrall, March 7th, 2011

Contradiction had already been around for about 14 years when The Voice of Hatred was released, but they were not sitting about idly. They released a few full-lengths and demos, none of which I can admit to having heard, but I'm guessing did not win them a large ration of success, especially considering the long, deep slumber the genre had taken in the 90s. This 4th album saw the band signed through Armageddon Music, along with fresh German blood like Spellbound and Reckless Tide, and a few veterans like Holy Moses; and they were finally able to give their aggression a proper voice, even if its one that does fade into the chorus of similar-minded artists.

The chalk-line and pavement poetry of the cover seems to hint at an urban brand of thrash, but there's nothing ghetto about the sound here. At its best, this is blazing, riff-heavy thrash metal with only slight tints of technicality, a hybrid of Bay Area and German aesthetics that sits soundly below the meaty, aggressive vocal tone of Oliver Lux. The band knows how to develop a chorus with a small fraction of melody ("The Voice of Hatred"), they construct their leads and guitars well enough, and I'm most reminded of bands like Exodus, Heathen, Vio-Lence and Forbidden, though the vocals are different. They can pace themselves between the expected momentum of mid to faster paced, biting thrash ("Break the Oath", "Engines of Greed", "Horizon"), but a few of the songs have great melodic setups like "Arguments" and "Nation of Fear" that work rather well.

Unfortunately, there are a few slower groove-heavy songs like "Crimes", "Privacy" and "Falling Down" that aren't so appealing, and they do hold back the album's overall effectiveness, but even these are written with a superior style to them than other German groove metal acts like, say, Hate Squad. Had The Voice of Hatred been trimmed down to about 6-7 songs, excluding the groove metal, then it would have made for a fluid, worthwhile listen, but it can be a little trying to skip around the track list, and even the pure thrashing moments do not elevate the band to the level of their forebears (European or American). On the bright side, this is a band on the rise, and future installments will improve their formula.

-autothrall
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