Sweden is often the heart of some of the greatest and best artists in the metal community, there are no doubts about it. Although home to some of these great melodic death and prog metal bands, it’s a rare find when a metalcore/deathcore band are heard of from the area. Voice Of Contention are one of those bands hidden, waiting to be unleashed. The ‘Worlds Apart’ EP consists of five variety-filled tracks, boasting with intelligent riffs and atmospheric waves of intense hardcore roots, shielded by metalcore structures throughout.
It’s not until third track in ‘Hopes And Dreams’ where the variation truly kicks in, forcing clean vocals and gang shouts together fusing an absolute siege of power and melody, almost as if this was a deathcore version of Killswitch Engage (Howard Jones’ era). ‘Worlds Apart’ becomes a progressive version of a Born Of Osiris track, combining unusual instruments to create a more developed, mature nature. The material on this track in my opinion makes Born Of Osiris’ latest album look weak and feeble, surely betting Voice Of Contention as future champions in the metal league. ‘Something Greater’ is the final chapter on the EP, again bettering everything done so far. Melody is the key attribute on this track; slithering it’s way through the entire song which begins peacefully until bragging a unique combination of decent clean sung vocals over throat-burning low growls. This combo heavily lies as the track’s destined true performance, igniting a passion for progressive core music that I haven’t encountered since The Haarp Machine’s debut. A genre capable of so many interests, in which I believe we haven’t quite seen what bands like this are fully capable of mastering. Only time will prove bands like Voice Of Contention are the new era of the core scene, putting shame to the recent genre djent in the way that there’s more key factors to appreciate within this original genre.
Rating: 8.5/10