''The Human Contradiction'' is the fourth studio album by Dutch

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars ...

band Delain. It was released on 4 April 2014 in Europe, and on 8 April 2014 in North America. The album features guest appearances from

Alissa White-Gluz Alissa White-Gluz (; born 31 July 1985) is a Canadian singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, and former lead vocalist and founding member of the Canadian metalcore band The Agonist. Her vocal ...

Marko Hietala Marko Tapani "Marco" Hietala (born 14 January 1966) is a Finnish Heavy metal music, heavy metal vocalist, bassist and songwriter. Internationally, he is best known as the former bassist, male vocalist and secondary composer to Tuomas Holopainen, ...

and George Oosthoek.

Background

According to lead singer

Charlotte Wessels Johanna Charlotte Wessels (born 13 May 1987) is a Dutch singer and songwriter. She is best known as the former lead vocalist for the symphonic metal band Delain. Background Wessels has been trained in both jazz singing and classical singing. S ...

, the album's title was inspired by Octavia E. Butler's

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

trilogy ''

Lilith's Brood ''Lilith's Brood'', previously known as the ''Xenogenesis Trilogy'', is a collection of three science fiction works by Octavia E. Butler: ''Dawn'', '' Adulthood Rites'', and ''Imago''. The books were previously collected in the now out-of-prin ...

''. 'The Human Contradiction' refers to humans in general being highly intelligent and hierarchically structured at the same time. The songwriting, however, was not influenced by ''Lilith's Brood'' but continues the theme of being different that was portrayed by Delain's previous album ''

We Are the Others ''We Are the Others'' is the third studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Delain. It was released in the Benelux and Germany on 1 June 2012 and in the United Kingdom and France on 4 June by CNR Music, who took over Delain when Warner Musi ...

''. It charted at number 25 on the Official Album Charts in their native country of Netherlands, as well as charting at number 44 on the Official Album Charts in the United Kingdom.

Reception

A joint review by 10 ''

Sonic Seducer ''Sonic Seducer'' is a German music magazine that covers gothic rock, new wave, EBM and other kinds of electronic music and culture. The magazine is noted for organizing the annual M'era Luna Festival. Since its inception in 1994, the ''Sonic ...

'' writers found that ''The Human Contradiction'' was a well-produced

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal music, heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different ...

album oriented towards

Within Temptation Within Temptation is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded in April 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. They have been classified by critics as gothic metal and symphonic metal, although each album contains other infl ...

, but without any new impulses. A reviewer for the ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whos ...

'' magazine wrote, too, that the album contained nothing new, but was well crafted. According to ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' Germany, ''The Human Contradiction'' was in fact different than other releases by Delain in that it contained a tiny musical allowing Charlotte Wessels to present the full range of her voice. The reviewer noted though that the album was "too hard for sophisticated pop, ndtoo shallow to have any rocking depth." Matt Farrington for All About The Rock said "It would be nice to see them pushing the boundaries more to see what else can be delivered. That said it would be a tough task for them to deliver a better record than April Rain back in 2009".

Track listing

Personnel

Delain

– vocals *

Martijn Westerholt David Martijn Westerholt (born 30 March 1979) is a Netherlands, Dutch musician and the founder, keyboardist and main songwriter of the symphonic metal band Delain. He was previously a member of symphonic metal band Within Temptation, until he w ...

– keyboards *Timo Somers – guitars *Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije – bass *Sander Zoer – drums

Additional musicians

– clean male vocals (2, 6) *George Oosthoek – death growls (5) *

– death growls & clean female backing vocals (9) * Georg Neuhauser – backing vocals (9) *Guus Eikens – additional guitars *Oliver Philipps – additional guitars, arrangements, engineer (vocals) *Mike Coolen – additional drums *Ruben Israel – additional drums *Mikko P. Mustonen – orchestration

Production

*Martijn Westerholt – production, arrangements * Arno Krabman – drum engineering *

Ad Sluijter Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever. Originally formed as a symphonic metal band with gothic metal, gothic influences, Epica later incorporated strong death ...

– guitar engineering *Christian Moos – guitar engineering, mixing *André Zoer – live recording engineering *

Fredrik Nordström Björn Tom Fredrik Nordström (born 5 January 1967) is a Swedish record producer and musician, and the guitarist of the heavy metal band Dream Evil. He is one of the leading melodic death metal and power metal producers in Sweden and has worke ...

– mixing *Henrik Udd – mixing *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– mastering at

Sterling Sound George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

, New York *Das Buro – artwork, design *Sandra Ludewig – photography

Charts

References

External links

Metallum Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Contradiction 2014 albums Delain albums Napalm Records albums