Contempt

Contempt - Resistance
RWS Records, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

1. Bleeding Hands
2. Wendigo
3. Liar's Rope
4. Solitude












This demo was sort of a random find. I remember someone linking me to a youtube song of theirs and from their I tracked down the demo tape. I was interested enough in the project to want the whole demo and I'm really glad I did. Contempt seems to be a fairly anonymous project out of Vermont in the U.S. "Resistance" is their first demo and there really isn't much info on it or its members other than the fact that someone named Galt wrote the lyrics. The record label that published this also seems to only exist for the purpose of putting out this demo tape. The cassette is dubbed but has a pro-printed j-stock styled cover. The tape also seems to be limited, since mine has the #47 written on it, but nowhere does it say what that is out of.

As you would expect from a demo tape of any kind this is raw Black Metal. It's not a perfect release or anything, but the opening track "Bleeding Hands" is extremely well made. It pulls you in immediately and its the track I heard that got me interested in the project. It has this catchiness in the song that draws you in and it has this hard hitting aspect that works extremely well. Meanwhile it just has this excellent cold and chilling atmosphere that draws me in immediately. Unfortunately, the following two tracks kind of wane in this regard. They are not bad, but they are a lot more somber and don't catch the ear as immediately. In the grand scheme of things I thought these were only okay, but that might have a lot to do with the fact that I thought the first was so good and the following tracks didn't really have the same kind of feel. The closing track "Solitude" is extremely melancholic and has some really wonderful atmosphere. This song was also an extremely well done song. It doesn't have that vicious meanness of the opener, but it has this dense atmosphere which is very well composed to put you in this excellent space as a listener.

I think this is an excellent beginning for the project, we'll see if anything more comes from them. The only major improvement they can really make is in their production. It's a little messy and could be cleaned up a little more at the very least. But other than that this starts things off with a really excellent atmosphere.