This is going to be interesting….

After two lauded releases of visceral, chaotic and brilliant tech-metal, Canada’s Ion Dissonance, with new, more hardcore sounding singer Kevin McCaughey at the helm, appear to have made a slight tweak to their sound, and one I actually prefer, though most may be a bit on the fence.

With a more controlled, angular and heaving tone that’s more akin to the likes of The Acacia Strain, The Handshake Murders, Apiary and A Life Once Lost …..on steroids, some may think the band have mellowed out some. However, despite their stylistic shift, Minus the Herd may actually be the band’s truly heaviest offering.

Folks let me tell you, mother of pearl is this thing hefty. From the oppressively heavy opening crumble of “The Surge” through the sheer density of closer “Tarnished Trepidation”, each track is a literally immense exercise in complete and utter heaviness and surgical strike like precision. Legendary hardcore producer Zeuss (Hatebreed, Terror, Shadow’s Fall) has delivered arguably his heaviest album ever, making the staggering, techy, yet restrained mountainous riffs simply tumble like a landslide of 3 ton boulders.

If the devastating lurch of “Scorn Haven”, aptly titled “Kneel”, menacingly restrained “You Shouldn’t be Alive” or ridiculously hefty start of “Void of Conscience” don’t wilt your knees, then simply give up listening to metal. For those that crave the band’s more chaotic side, it’s here but just played at 33rpm rather than 78rpm. That being said, “Through Evidence”, “Of Me…Noboby is Safe” with their ‘Dillinger Escape Plan shot out the ass of a charging 5000lb Rhino’ styled complexity should satiate fans of the previous two albums.

While bands like The Acacia Strain and Emmure have claimed to have released the ‘heaviest’ or most ‘brutal’ albums, the truth is, Ion Dissonance actually have, and you are not going hear an album as truly punishing as Minus the Herd in a long time.

[Visit the band's website]

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