Reviews

So you love the Red Chord but hate that weird free jazz shit they pull?  Welcome to your new favorite band.  Ion Dissonance is brutal, and they have the tech specs to pull off some incomprehensibly dense grindcore.  And, as an added bonus they are insane French Canadians.  During Play Dead... And I’ll Play Along, the very first song, after two minutes of jaw dropping brutality, vocalist Gabriel McCaughry intones, “I am giving you a choice.  Kill yourself or someone you love.” Breakdown. “Kill yourself or someone you love. Just kill. Your. Self.”  At this point I am openly gaping, just standing there, open mouthed, in front of the stereo.  Welcome to my new favorite band.
 
Solace is a relentless album.  I cringe imagining the drummer’s poor swollen and tired ankle joint during songs with non stop double bass pedal action.  Thinking about what the singer puts his throat through causes me to wince.  My fingers throb trying to emulate Ion Dissonance on the air guitar.  This band is intense.   If only the songs were a little more varied, this would be in contention for best album of the year.  It is absolutely technically precise, and the kids who get off on that will be all over this, but for those who cannot understand why someone would listen to forty minutes of noise with a double bass pedal, then Solace might not answer their questions.
 
Imagine a more straight ahead Dillinger Escape Plan (if that makes any sense) and then give the members all great names like Xavier and Jean-Francois.  Ion Dissonance is for fans of The End, The (aforementioned) Red Chord, The Acacia Strain and basically anything thunderous and heavy.  It remains to be seen if Solace can maintain the same level of awe it inspired on me early on, but if it does, expect to see Ion Dissonance on many end of year lists.