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Ion Dissonance - Breathing Is Irrelevant

Saturday, 01 December 2007

Editor's rating

9.0

out of 10

Reviewed by:
Chad Coup
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Tuesday, 04 December 2007
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Music Information

Track Listing:
01. Substantial Guilt Vs. The Irony Of Enjoying
02. The Bud Dwyer Effect
03. Failure In The Process Of Identifying A Dream
04. 101101110110001
05. Binary, Part II
06. The Death Of One Man Is A Tragedy, The Death Of 10 000 Is A Statistic
07. Oceanic Motion
08. The Girl Nextdoor Is Always Screaming...
09. A Regular Dose Of Azure

Artist: Ion Dissonance
Title: Breathing Is Irrelevant
Genre: Hardcore
Release Date: 02 September 2003
Record Label: Willowtip Records
Format: Full-length
Country: Canada
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Ion Dissonance - Breathing Is Irrelevant

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Editor review

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Overall rating (weighted)		9.0
Musicianship		8.0
Composition		10.0
Experimentation		9.0
Production		8.0
Value		10.0

This is probably the only band I can think of that produces technical hardcore so abrasive, aggressive and intense that it almost becomes its own genre. Vocalist/lyricist Gabriel McCaughry used to front an extreme black metal band called Unquintessence and his influence comes through a bit here. The songs are cold, brutal and chaotic with a breakdown here and there for good measure. This is easily the band's best record, with their fusion of ideas made extremely clear. The ID sound is a lot like a hardcore band that lost all the blood from the punk rock influence and replaced it with cobra venom. This is music that is as disturbing as it is complicated.

There's one thing I champion Ion Dissonance for: composition. The guitar assault is really a joy to take in. Gab's vocals are quite expressive, full and round. Everything in this album is so well-placed for maximum effect. Breakdowns skillfully sneak in right after a furious fretboard workout. The mix is toned down so the bass is almost nonexistent, but that's not too much of a problem. Careful listeners will hear the great bass work. Gab's vocals are absolutely furious. He goes from shrieking at the top of his ability to forcing out so much hate at a lower octave in a split-second. He is the ultimate tech metal vocalist when it comes to range and overall delivery. Additionally, he does the talk-to-a-scream stuff a few times, further emphasizing the insane lyrics.

Each song features extremely over-the-top lyrics that tell some sort of fucked up story, like "The Girl Nextdoor Is Always Screaming..." and "The Death Of One Man..." For example, "You're so pretty in pink, I think I'll grab myself a cold one and watch you explode." I get a huge kick out of reading these, and when you get familiar with the songs and read the lyrics along with the music they become even more malicious.

There are few weak points to this quite amazing debut. The song "The Death Of One Man..." is essentially one long breakdown with some tech thrown in to balance out the cheese. I listened to an audio interview with Gab and when this song was mentioned he chuckled and said that they made it up in one practice. I guess you have to bring in the sceners somehow. It's still a good song, but it seems a little odd with the rest of the record. The final song "A Regular Dose Of Azure" doesn't cap the album off that well. It's pretty good but goes more for atmosphere than anything else and gives the listener a small hint of what the next album would be like.

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