Ion Dissonance

Cursed

Written by: PP on 17/08/2010 21:39:10

Not only do Ion Dissonance own one of the coolest metal names known to man, they're also one of the heaviest and most experimental metal bands known to man. If you can't handle your music weighing approximately ten thousand tonnes on your skull in randomized time signatures, you might as well click away, because Ion Dissonance spend precisely 48 minutes and 41 seconds obliterating anything and everything that comes in its way. Maybe the record's title "Cursed" is a reference to us poor reviewers who have to sit through this record several times and try to make something of it, a rather difficult task in itself because Ion Dissonance's style isn't exactly easy to describe. Is it tech metal with progressive overtones? Progressive deathcore? Death metal with stupendous technical prowess, mathcore influence and immense density?

I'm just gonna go ahead and dub it insanity metal.

Surprisingly enough, such a subgenre doesn't already exist, even though it's a perfect fit for the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, et al. You know, bands who like to experiment with time signatures and tempo changes so complex that one damn near needs a PhD in theoretical physics to make any sense of the music which has all the characteristics of pure unadulterated noise of the loudest kind. Hence the term, 'mathcore'. Ion Dissonance, like their obvious influences, fit perfectly in this category, as they plow through maniacal guitar structures that transition into sudden breakdowns before organically transforming into a memorable lead or a hook. Did I mention they might change the tempo a few dozen times during such a sequence? There are moments where it feels like Ion Dissonance wrote down some tempos and time signatures on small pieces of paper, shoved them in a large hat, and said "Alright lads, off we go. Okay... 7/8, then 32/36, now 4/4, then 156/32". This is precisely how they achieve such monstrous heaviness throughout the disc. Maybe they should use "Cursed" instead of concrete as the counterweights in industrial cranes, I'm sure it would work equally well.

Now on top of the instrumental wizardry, the band utilizes a large variety of different vocal styles ranging from a brutal hardcore yell to spoken-word screaming and even growling in places. When these are placed on top of the chaotic musical landscape, the end result is either pure genius or a horrid, nonsensical mess, depending on which side of the metaphorical metal fence you're standing on. It also gives the record a tight, modern sound that helps create that thorough density I talked about earlier on, which makes Fear Factory's "Transgression" songs sound like a light hangover morning breakfast.

However, despite the experimental approach to composition, which deserves acclaim and credit just for being so strange and unconventional in itself, the overall product leaves me with a, if not cold, at least lukewarm feeling. The sound isn't exactly mechanical, but the brutal, mental hospital escapist metal in random time signatures (that should leave Dillinger Escape Plan feeling proud) is well, not tiring, but extremely consuming for the listener. So come prepared, and don't expect an easy album to get along with. "Cursed" doesn't want to be friends, it wants to tear you apart limb by limb, leave you helplessly lying in the middle of the road, only to return with a road roller to finish what it started. Not for the faint-hearted.

7

Download: We Like To Call This One...Fuck Off, This Is The Last Time I Repeat Myself
For the fans of: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Heavy Heavy Low Low, Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza
Listen: Myspace

Release date 23.08.2010
Basick Records

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