Ion Dissonance are one of those bands who should be a lot more recognised within the realms of extreme metal — or djent/mathcore/whatever. You could bundle them with sound of a few deathcore bands if you wish, but there is much more depth, and a much more chin-stroking aspect to the band, which in itself has morphed throughout the course of their 9 year history. Cursed marks a return to the pulverising technicality for the band after a hiatus which involved, well, working full-time elsewhere (such is life) and trying to rekindle their inspiration for excessive metal.

It must have been reassuring for the band with the success of fellow Canadian’s Despised Icon, yet ironically at the same time just as worrying to see the latter having now called it a day. Consolidating their own lineup and label changes, this release comes out on the forward thinking Basick Records in Europe.

Cursed partly returns to the noisy extremities of 2005′s Solace yet not wholly without the groove found in 2007′s Minus The Herd. If anything, the band have pushed themselves into a more technical and thick riffing area with bands such as The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, who play a mix of discordant low end chugs and rapid tapping to create an eclectic and experimental sound. Ion Dissonance, however, mould those two aspects into a raucous and almost seamless mix of butchery, and perhaps to play similar in style to Neuraxis.

What really stands out in the production of this album is the sheer balls of that bass tone. In every other song you just get an earful of bassist Yannick Desgroseillers’ incredibly dense and booming low end. It does sound similar to the tone Meshuggah get on ‘Stengah’ in particular and the rest of that album and that can only be a good thing. Whereas the bass tone on Minus the Herd was almost sub-like in presence and partly hidden amongst the mix, here you can feel the grunt and clunk on tracks such as ‘You People Are Messed Up’, ‘After Everything That’s Happened, What Did You Expect’, and ‘Can Someone Explain This To Me’. There are also some of the most mind-boggling drum fills and odd time signatures on tracks such as ‘This Feels Like The End’, and it incredibly refreshing to hear a drummer play varied parts rather than rely on a blastbeats, sparse crashes and even sparser snare hits.

Alex Erian (Despised Icon) trades vocals with the constantly pissed off sounding vocalist Kevin McCaugheyon on ‘This Is The Last Time I Repeat Myself’, and strangely enough there is an whiff of the more technical side to Erian’s band. Couple this with the saturated droning sound and string bending of Emmure makes for one heck of a track. It will take ages to pick apart much of the album in any real form, which is a good thing as complex it is, boring it isn’t.

Cursed is less groove orientated and not as chaotic as past releases; it is an extreme dense audio juggernaut, and currently one of the best albums Basick have released. Surely they won’t be able to pull this off live?