Bedlam reigns supreme as Ion Dissonance offers up a bombardment of angular, disorderly musical expression on their sophomore effort, Solace. While the band's intense potential was abundantly articulated on their previous release, Breathing Is Irrelevant, this latest platter of mind-melting madness finds the group cranking up the intensity numerous notches and in doing so, Ion Dissonance delivers a mauling, bruising monster of a record that's dead set on flattening everything standing in its path.
Although the group claims the Metalcore scene as its own, they've incorporated many divergent styles of Metal into their songwriting, displaying an intent reach beyond the norm. Guitarists Antoine Lussier and Sebastian Chaput prove with insanely manic tracks like Play Dead... And I'll Play Along and the absolutely voracious Cleansed By Silence that they have the aptitude to pull off Necrophagist-style scale slaughtering and thick, brawny Hardcore chugging with equal assertion. Considering the manner in which Ion Dissonance mixes up its arrangements and offers both shanking, acute strikes and full-on sledgehammer rhythms with suitable fervor, comparisons to Dillinger Escape Plan are inescapable.
A first-rate job of production by Pierre Rémillard places the immense, hefty riffs of Lussier and Chaput front and center in the mix without conciliation of the integrity of the recording's overall sound. As the anguished vocals of Gabriel McCaughry caustically snarl throughout She's Strychnine, the guitar duo's overwhelming sounds provide an ample degree of fortitude, causing the listener to perceive a sonic combination of a train wreck and a bludgeoning by anvil. A guest vocal appearance by Alexandre Erian of Despised Icon on Play Dead...And I'll Play Along and the substantial, earthmoving track Signature enhances the ferocity of the band's tech assault, but Ion Dissonance needs little assistance in being heavy; they do a superior job of that on their own.
There can be no denying that Solace is brutalizing. Few young bands can match the sheer technical ability of Ion Dissonance and even fewer can pull off an album that is so factually massive sounding. For those who thrill at the sounds of bands like Psyopus and The Red Chord, Ion Dissonance may just be your latest favorite band.