September 2, 2003 - Ion Dissonance and Breathing Is Irrelevant

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when Ion Dissonance released their debut album "Breathing Is Irrelevant" on September 2, 2003. But who is Ion Dissonance? They are a five-piece mathcore band from Montreal, Quebec consisting of lead singer Gabriel McCaughry, guitarists Antoine Lussier and Sébastien Chaput, bassist Miguel Valade and drummer Jean-Francois Richard. Ion Dissonance play a very technical, extremely heavy style of metal that is unlike anything else in my library. They take the craziest parts of a band like The Dillinger Escape Plan, but there are no clean vocals at all and all kinds of offbeat, unpredictable riffs. They also have some unusual song titles... let's see what Ion Dissonance is all about!

The album begins with "Substantial Guilt Vs. The Irony Of Enjoying" and words are instantly failing me as it's very difficult to describe their erratic style. McCaughry is belting out some unbelievably high screams right from the get-go and the guitars are all over the place and very unpredictable. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time and there's plenty of heavy/cool stuff firing off! After a couple minutes they do move into a simpler riff (but it's still plenty heavy) with McCaughry talking quickly overtop, but they segue nicely from here into another offbeat and interesting riff. This is a pretty good appetizer for what Ion Dissonance is all about, they are certainly unique! Up next is "The Bud Dwyer Effect" and they jump right into a chaotic riff with everyone seemingly playing their own thing, and it combines for one loud, in your face cacophony of sound, especially with McCaughry just wailing at the top of his lungs! The guitarists occasionally sync up, which is quite impressive considering they are playing the opposite of melodic stuff! Staying perfectly in time with such odd time signatures is really cool and once again words don't do proper justice to all the heaviness they pack into this song! I love the change from super low guitars to super high ones and McCaughry's piercing wails are pretty nuts too! They end the song on an unbelievably heavy note, this was one really interesting and cool tune! Track 3 is "Failure In The Process Of Identifying A Dream" and they start off with one guitarist playing a slow, epic riff, but it's just a tease before they slam into another riff that is just absolute mayhem! The rhythm section of Valade and Richard is just going pretty much non-stop and the two guitarists play completely different and crazy riffs so that there's always some crazy form of metal hitting your ears at every possible millisecond! So much awesome guitar work, and McCaughry doing some nice lower screams as well as typical piercingly high wails. McCaughry does some more talking towards the end, but as expected it's pretty bland, and way flat compared to his insane screams. Aside from that part, the other four minutes were some more indescribably cool metal! The next track is "101101110110001", which is the word "Binary" spelled out in binary! Told you there were interesting song names! You really have to listen to this style of music to comprehend it, it's just so all over the place and insane! I love the erratic and super high guitars and along with McCaughry screaming high overtop everything just sounds so batshit crazy and over the top, I love it! You never know where each note will take you as these guys throw you around the room violently. The end leads right into "Binary, Pt. II" and after a short, heavy opening they move into a very light riff that is way out of character with McCaughry talking quickly overtop some quiet guitar. After one round of this the same riff gets a lot heavier with some high screams and some much louder guitars as things now sound much more typical. Words fall short once again as they chaotically slam their way through the rest of the song. Up next is "The Death Of One Man Is A Tragedy, The Death Of 10, 000 Is A Statistic", a quote attributed to Joseph Stalin, and McCaughry dives right in with some more super high screams while the rest of the band provides a punishingly heavy riff. This song is only two minutes long, and in the latter half they slow things down for a nice heavy breakdown with some pretty cool guitar and more unbelievably high wailing from McCaughry. Track 7 is "Oceanic Motion" and they waste no time once again, firing right into a relentlessly unpredictable main riff with everyone firing on all cylinders. The chorus (if you can pick it out amongst the chaos) is a little slower and simpler, but not by much, and the verses are indescribable! So much insane guitars, drums and wild screams, it's absolute mayhem and I love it! Great song! The next track is "The Girl Nextdoor Is Always Screaming" and one of the guitarists plays a pretty cool stop-and-start riff to kick this one off. They move nicely from here into a more typical, offbeat main riff with whoever is on the lead guitar doing some pretty sweet shredding at times! Valade plays some great bass throughout, and a couple times everything stops but him and the short bass clip is pretty sweet each time! Words don't do proper justice when I say it was another typical song for them; each one is it's own unique painting of organized chaos! The final song on the album is "A Regular Dose Of Azure" and after a short back-and-forth opening they settle into a kind of groovy, almost Meshuggah-esque main riff and I can definitely dig that! Eventually we get some faster guitars overtop this slower main riff and it makes for a good mix, especially with McCaughry wailing nicely overtop. After several minutes of this they move briefly to a melodic, epic riff that is very unusual for them but it sounds solid, then they slam into a heavy finish to close things out.

That is the end of "Breathing Is Irrelevant" and I thought it was a very interesting and cool debut album by Ion Dissonance. These guys have a sound all to their own and I just love all the unpredictability and chaos! I can't wait to see where Ion Dissonance goes from here!