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Ion Dissonance - Breathing Is Irrelevant
2003 Willowtip Records
Ion Dissonance - Breathing Is Irrelevant

Track Listing:
1. Substantial Guilt Vs. The Irony Of Enjoying
2. The Bud Dwyer Effect
3. Failure In The Process Of Identifying A Dream
4. 101101110110001
5. Binary, part 2
6. The Death Of One Man Is A Tragedy, The Death Of 10,000 Is A Statistic
7. Oceanic Motion
8. The Girl Next Door Is Always Screaming...
9. A Regular Dose Of Azure

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Gabriel McCaughry
Guitars:  Antoine Lussier, Sebastian Chaput
Bass:  Miguel Valade
Drums:  Jean-Francois Richard

Lamp's Rating:  D+
Average Album Rating:  D+

Lamp's Review:
Ion Dissonance burst out of Montreal to become part of this new tech-metalcore scene that's gotten big in the past few years thanks to Dillinger Escape Plan breaking the door open for more bands to come.  You could always say that the bands that follow are not as good as the bands that start the genre, but it rings true in this case.  As many times as I've tried, I just can't get into this.  I've never been able to bring myself to say this was a solidly good album.  Yes, there are cool sounding riffs, but I just don't feel like this band writes SONGS.  Most of the transitions from one riff to another throw you completely off kilter, and not in a good way either.  It just goes from one boring riff to another boring riff most of the time with the two sounding nothing alike

I say if this band wants to sound more interesting, they should stop trying so hard to sound like Meshuggah with their one-chord 13/8 low chug rhythms and start writing things that actually hold your interest.  It's obvious they can do it, these are all very talented musicians.  This band has potential.

Every time I listen to Breathing Is Irrelevant, I listen and I remember the cool parts of songs, but I never remember the song as a whole.  For the 28 minutes of length this CD has, maybe 5 minutes of it are worth listening to.  It's not the worst thing ever, but it's not the best.  Maybe I just don't get it, but there's got to be more that makes a band good than pure heaviness.  I just know it.
Lamp's Rating:  D+