Ion Dissonance - Cursed

Ion Dissonance is a band from Canada that slams and pushes further the limits of music. Since their debut album in 2003, they have been ravaging into metal, hardcore and experimentation through the years, leaving the listener thirsty for the “what could they possibly do next…?” Their music voyage have presented us with one of the most crushing approaches in the industry, full of what seems an ectoplasmic compositional style, something from the beyond that seduces you into controlled madness and leads you to infinite wondering.

Minus The Herd, their previous album has been without a doubt the most controversial album among all. Some people accused them of copying literally Meshuggah’s riffs into the music, some accused them of copying Meshuggah style, some accused them of approaching a style more accessible to sell, and some believed that the album didn’t belong to what Ion Dissonance "was". Whether you feel identified or not with any/most of these arguments, then you were hoping with all your energies that Minus The Herd would not repeat itself.

I’m not going to bash Minus The Herd in this review since I liked the album, but I can tell you that you’ll be surprised with Cursed. The album is like a mix of what they have done from the first album to the last, however with the detail that they have pushed the boundaries even more.

This new release is perhaps the most powerful work they have done ever in their career; it’s a state of the art cacophonous assault to your ears, it’s balanced between the technique and the groove, the simple and the absurd. Cursed is the ideal name to describe what this is, it’s at statement that says “f… you, we do what we want, and we do it good!”.

Ion Dissonance is characterized for doing a lot of mathcore style riffs mixed with metal, and in this album, the blend is amazing. The album will appeal to those who were more into Minus The Herd as well as those who liked Solace or Breathing Is Irrelevant only, leaving you with practically no option to totally dislike this album.

The production is simply brilliant. They managed to mix all that chaos into one single massive unit of destruction; the guitars are very bright compared to Minus The Herd but the low end is still pretty much intact, which makes the album stand much more to your ears.

There are a couple of things that took my attention. One them is that this album doesn’t have a peak, the songs don’t build themselves into the obscenity that they have us accustomed to, they just break loose in that peak, no bottom, no top, plainly and simply straight forward apocalypse. In consequence, the album can get even boring or tiring very fast which also brings the fact about the vocals; I think they were very good, but still, the phrasing was pretty much simple and lowly creative, which doesn’t build up even more the magic behind it.

Wrapping up, Cursed is a fresh, highly important album in the extreme music community. As Ion Dissonance reputation stands by being one of the few bands brave enough to show the world what’s beyond the limits, without compromising to anyone but to themselves, full of honesty, showcases the true future, an utter dystopia embodied into music.