Year: 2026
Label: Zoharum
When mentioning industrial metal, my guess is that most people will think of bands such as Ministry, Rammstein and, I dunno, maybe Deathstars. Acts such as Godflesh seem to have vanished from the map of industrial metal – even though they are still active.
After that intro, you won’t be surprised when I mention that, in the context of industrial metal, Polish Kontagion lean far more towards Godflesh than Ministry on this, their fifth album.
However, I’s context is far, far larger than industrial metal. The influences and elements welded together on this album extend from industrial metal to 90’s alternative metal/rock, and further on to sludge, post-doom and why not even a tad of noise rock.
Simple music, this is not.
On I, Kontagion clash disparate elements such as vocal melodies akin to 90’s Faith No More and Incubus, with the unrelenting industrialized barrage of aforementioned Godflesh and the likes, sludge of a more hardcore bent rather than doom metal, and the abrasive, grating sonic aesthetics of noise rock. It’s an eclectic mix, and one that requires a weird set of musical preferences to fully hit home.
Which I don’t possess. Especially the more 90’s elements of this album are a miss for me – some Faith No More I can stand, but Incubus and other “heavier” 90’s alternative acts of a similar ilk are a definite bust.
Another problem on I is that the songs aren’t very memorable. Even after numerous spins no song as a whole has started to stand out as a highlight, even though there are nice sections and riffs here and there. Somehow these just don’t glue together into songs that would stick with the listener.
It’s not all bad, though. Definitely not. The sound, with all its sharp, rusty edges is nice – and heavy. The gruffer vocals, which bear a kinship to more hardcore leaning sludge, work nicely as well. But despite the things I can tick off in the “pro” bracket, the whole just doesn’t click.
Granted, people who get more excited than I did about the genre mixture described above will get far more out of this album that I did. And I is definitely not a bad album. It’s done with style and determination, clearly the product of a band who knew how they wanted to sound. But like they say, opinions are like assholes: everyone’s got one. And mine is that on I, Kontagion fail to overcome the slight negative bias I have towards the elements their sound is built from, predominantly because the forgettable songs.
Only Death Is Real 