CONTRAST ATTITUDE - DISCHARGE YOUR NOISE

The cover of Discharge Your Noise

I read somewhere that Contrast Attitude wanted to expand on the original formula of d-beat, taking the next natural step as it were. Have they done that with 'Discharge Your Noise'? Yeah, I guess! Contrast Attitude seems to be a big deal, I've read hype texts for this new album both from Jacky (Framtid) and Patrick (Destruct) and as I've come to understand it the members have played in very influential bands over the years. But as Contrast Attitude they're a completely new acquaintance for me, so I'm not going to take their previous efforts into account.

A live photo of Contrast Attitude from The Warehouse, Richmond, VA in 2025. The audience to the left is enjoying themselves and the band to the right are playing. The drummer is just out of shot.

It's no question what genre they're playing, it's d-beat based on a mix of the Discharge- and Disclose formula, but they sprinkle in fills and twists at every corner. The intensity is dialed up quite a bit which makes me think of D-Clone (even though Contrast Attitude was formed almost a decade earlier), and from what I've gathered the two bands are located only 1,5 hours apart (Matsusaka - Nagoya) and this album is even recorded in Nagoya Studio which D-Clone also have used. I wonder if they might have inspired each other.

A photo of the vinyl record spinning on a turntable

So what do I think of their effort to evolve the d-beat genre? Well, I'm somewhere in the middle on this to be honest. I haven't grown tired of the traditional way yet - so personally I don't really need changes simply for the sake of changes - but it's cool that not all bands sound exactly the same and Contrast Attitude make a really good effort to stand out. 'Discharge Your Noise' is, for me, best during the more traditional sections though. Well, there's pretty much always something cool going on throughout the album, but when the drums are going at it with plain d-beat and the strings are just hammering out solid riffs in a steady pace, that's when I enjoy the record the most. In other words, while I appreciate their effort to bring something fresh into the mix I still tend to favor the familiar.

But, that said, there's a few really good tracks on this album that I can listen to over and over again. My favorites are 'The Eyes', 'Blind Chains', 'Existence' and 'The Last Moment'. I think Contrast Attitude strike the best balance between old and new, if that's something people want these days, in the opening track 'Relentless Assault'.

The two variants of the album cover, the EU and JP cover by Rainy on the left and the US cover by Karamura on the right

The cover artwork vary depending on which part of the world you live in. The US release (on Desolate Records) have a cover created by Kosuke Kawamura and the european release (on D-Takt & Råpunk Records) as well as the japanese CD version (on WHY Records) have a cover created by Rainy (Discharge). No matter which version you get your hands on you'll get an interesting and contageous d-beat album that makes a good effort to expand on the sound we've all come to love, as long as that's what you're after.

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