CONTRADICTION – The Voice Of Hatred

This Teutonic Thrash outfit from the city of Wuppertal may be known to some since they have been around for almost 20 years. In that time, they released two albums during the nineties, Rules Of Peace (1993) and All We Hate! (1995), before they went on hiatus. With their sales figures of 1200 and 2500 copies, respectively, of which they talk about freely on their Web site, they always remained firmly in the “underground” where they made themselves a name as a live band, playing whenever and wherever they could. In 2005, after being resuscitated in 2003, they followed with this album, The Voice Of Hatred. Although they released a fourth album, The Warchitect, since then, the The Voice Of Hatred is just now being released in the USA via Locomotive Records, so it is a good second chance to become acquainted with a hot piece of steel you probably missed.

Germany has a good name in the international Thrash scene, as several classic Thrash bands originated from German soil, like Sodom, Exumer, Kreator, Accuser, Holy Moses, and Darkness, just to name a few. Contradiction is adding their name to that list now, too, as every Thrash fan should listen to this album of typical old school German in-your-face Metal. Their style can easily be compared to the bands above, plus a bit of Pantera riffing and Sepultura vocals.

The Voice Of Hatred should have been released in the Bay Area in the mid-eighties, and maybe fast, heavy songs like the opening track “Break The Oath,” “Engines Of Greed,” or “Hate Patrol” would be classics at this moment. The compositions are more diverse than they would have been a decade or two ago… fast tracks are mostly interrupted by mid-tempo choruses with remarkable melodies, comparable to the latest Slayer albums where no fast song is fast from beginning to end. But, in contrast to several releases by the Thrash Gods, Contradiction alter speed and mood during the album several times, sometimes with surprising results: “Falling Down” starts with quite a Rock ’n’ Roll feeling before spoken parts take over, “Privacy” has a definite Hardcore influence, “Nation Of Fear” suddenly has an acoustic part amid a groovy, heavy platform, and “Crimes” can be best described as Doom Metal, and a good track at that.

For old school Thrash fans, this is a trip back in time you don’t want to miss; not on album and certainly not live. In Germany, they supported Overkill on their last tour in 2006 and showed that the initial energy is still there. They sold quite a few albums at those shows, and it seems fans can expect them to be around for quite a while. What is missing is for them to get the same chance in the USA, and hopefully Locomotive can make that happen. In the meantime you know what to do …