With a sizeable gap following the band’s most recent opus ‘Cursed’, one might expect a band as white hot as Ion Dissonance to dial down the aggression after such a lengthy period of inactivity, but on ‘Cast The First Stone’, the Canadian five-piece quickly prove that this simply isn’t the case.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD” screams an incensed, Kevin McCaughey on opener ‘Burdens’; accompanied by an equally belligerent instrumental, the band are quite happy to cave your skull in over and over again from here on in.

Light on hooks and heavy on whammy pedal worship and extended range guitar chugging, ‘Cast The First Stone’’s eleven tracks each tell their own story of rage and frustration. However, noise and bile alone do not a good album make, and it is the sparing inclusion of more conventional sounds that make this record so effective.

Following the tense build up of ‘Untitled II’, Ion Dissonance deliver the album’s three strongest moments in a row. ‘Suffering – The Art of Letting Go’ introduces an almost death metal riff that plays against some excellent off-kilter drumming, while surefire rabble rouser Ill Will brings the m0sh with some beefy, Meshuggah-seque grooves. The album’s highlight however lies in nine-minute juggernaut ‘D.A.B.D.A. State of Discordance’. On paper, a track of this length might seem superfluous in music as chaotic as this, but here Ion Dissonance inject just enough groove to anchor the listener’s attention while keeping aggression levels suitably high while avoiding too much ambient padding.

Overall, Ion Dissonance’s sheer ferocity on this record is a force to be reckoned with, but verges a little too hard on being derivative to sit on mathcore’s cutting edge. What this record is however is a solid exemplar of its genre, and will no doubt satisfy those who have waited over half a decade for its release.

3/5

‘Cast The First Stone’ by Ion Dissonance is released on November 18th on Good Fight Music.

Ion Dissonance links: Website|Facebook|Twitter

Words by Josh Graham (@jollyboyjosj_)