review: Contrarian -- progressive death metal for fans of Cynic, Atheist, and late-era Death

Contrarian

Only Time Will Tell

Willowtip Records

20 November 2020

This is the band's fifth release. They have a debut EP and four albums. The new music, as has always been the case with this band, is in the style of the progressive phase of the pioneers Atheist, Death and Cynic. It is meant to be quality prog extremity that emphasizes melody. At this point, the music has reached that stage in which the songwriting is truly the one fundamental aspect that the listeners will notice, as if the band has been working on making the music even catchier and making the effort to take their egos out of the music. The songs by themselves demonstrate the skills of the musicians, and this will be 100% clear to the listeners that spend the time hearing the album. Trivia: The band has had an unstable situation in the department of the vocals. It looks like they convinced Cody McConnell, who growled on the 2015 debut full-length album to come back. Unlike some of the other recordings’ higher-pitched growl-ing, Cody McConnell has that lower gruff voice that most death metal fans prefer. Es-sentially, it is a brutal tone that is mixed correctly into the sound, avoiding being too loud or too low. On the other hand, fans of the 90s albums might point out that Atheist and Death had unique or expressive vocals. Whereas with Atheist and Death fans are able to make out the words, with Contrarian that is much more difficult, given the low, brutal approach. Fans that do enjoy these brutal vocals should be pleased with the melodic style of prog of Contrarian.

Only Time Will Tell by Contrarian