Day of Contempt are a hardcore outfit from Adelaide that have managed to capture pure talent on The Will To Live. Produced by Josh Abraham (Weezer, Velvet Revolver, Linkin Park, Static X) the album is slick and each track is killer. The album has a tense energy that explodes at the most unexpected moments.

Opening with a really cool plucking, jack-in-the-box, scratchy pianola kind of sound that is hard to place before launching into A Million Miles, a heavy sounding, riff intensive opener that seems to be straining to be let off the leash. It sounds like the band wants to play at a different pace for the most part but that just gives it an edge. It is a simmering, melodic song that highlights the quality of the song writing as you can hear and understand the lyrics. The vocals are loud, brash and ugly – perfect for the verses serving as a great contrast to the lyrical chorus.

The Ghost of Tragedy is the same kind of tempo but does some interesting things with the pace in the middle to break it up. It sounds very much like an Alexisonfire song, so if you like them, you’ll be happy with this. Salvation Wearing Thin is the third track and it is very easy to listen to. It is snappy, catchy and I really liked the drumming through the whole song. It was never what you expected or where you thought the note would fall. This was the best song here.

Shattered Dreams and Broken Hearts starts with a piano introduction, then launches into a slower style song (as you would expect from the title) which manages to meld soft lyrics with heavy instrumentation and still come out sweet. Nicely done.

Take All The Blame sounded like a lot of songs produced in the hardcore genre, as good as any others but wasn’t anything terrible new. I liked the harmonies in this song, they stood out as the finest point of the song.

Close My Eyes rounds out the release and starts with a scratchy record sound and then a sturdy lead guitar riff before the bass and drums kick in.

The arrangement on these songs are really top notch and this release is a great introduction to Day Of Contempt with each song on The Will To Live would be fantastic live and worth buying.