Album Review: Kontrust - Madworld

You guys know I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. It’s been nine years since the last album from Austrian metal legends, Kontrust. For me, this was my most hyped album of 2023. I have adored this band for a long time. Their last album “Explosive” in 2014, had interesting elements and a couple of my favourite tracks. Including “Why”, “Play!” and “Just Propaganda”. The band mostly spent a lot of their time touring and then the world decided to suspend itself for a while through the COVID pandemic and now we’re on the other side, I think we all needed a record like this one. Or at least, I did. In June 2022 the band announced a change in their line-up, as the new singer Julia Ivanova and drummer Joey Sebald joined the band. With that, the band geared up for a new record, Madworld. I discussed this with them in my interview on the blog.

I loved all of the singles leading up to the album and I think they were the right way to introduce people to this album as a concept. The lead single “I Physically Like You” is an absolute earworm, “The End” is a bouncy anthemic tune about the end of the world and “Lederhosen Overkill” is a bombastic chaotic overture that is just relentless. So I think, they made the right choices in singles that would allow people to understand what this new album was going to be about. Honestly, I love how this album sounds. The thumping drums, the infectious choruses and vibrant tones. The Kontrust style is to take the dark, dreary world of industrial metal and adds sunshine and bubblegum to it. Madworld, is lays the hooks, one on top of the other. Songs like “Rock To Outer Space” and “Pulling” a monster anthems that weave that needle of catchiness into your mind. 

From a production standpoint, this album sounds brilliant. Lots of heavy bass and a pulsating rhythm keep the album fresh and in your head. The grind of the guitars and the hum of the synth lay out a fine foundation for the madness that goes over the top. Then the enigmatic core of this album is the energy and passion of the duel vocalists, Stefan Lichtenberger and Julia Ivanova. They take the rhythm, the energy, the grit, and the heaviness and explode with a delivery that sticks in your head long after the album is over. The energy that Manuel Haglmüller and Joey Sebald provide sticks out as the hard-hitting beat comes right to the forefront. Which goes that extra way to make the song stick in your head. This is an album that sounds like a party, just as it’s getting into full swing.

So, was this album worth the wait all year (well since 2014)? I would say so. I mean, you get what you get with Kontrust. If you weren’t a fan of them before, I don’t think there’s much here to make you turn around on them. Not that it’s more of the same, not at all. I just think Kontrust know their audience and they know how to play to their strengths. Big sounding songs, catchy hooks, with all the amps dialled you to eleven. You know what you’re in for an album from them. Which I think is fine. I really enjoyed the experience of this record and it will be in my collection and my rotation for years to come. It just made me smile and felt like a bit of escapism, with moments of reality bleeding through. If you’re looking for something bouncy, heavy and filled to the brim with hooks, this is your record.