Whilst many in the world of heavy metal will have been spending the last few weeks speculating and gesticulating about whether the new Metallica album is any good (spolier alert: it is), a fair few at the more extreme end of our community will have also been anxiously whether Montreal extreme metallers Ion Dissonance still had it in them to produce another slab of brutal, technical deathcore after yet another extended period of career silence from these Canadians.

You can all rest easy: Cast The First Stone, the band’s first record in over six years, is not just worth the considerable wait: it may also be the band’s most accomplished work to date. Adroitly dispensing with anything remotely approaching what we would conventionally understand as “melody” in favour of a relentless all out aural assault, Cast The First Stone will not be to everyone’s palette. However, for those of you looking for an absurdly fast, aggressive and wilfully obtuse record, there are far worse places to visit than the soundscapes created by Kevin McCaughey and Co and all the better for its single-mindedness. This is a record as punk in its aesthetic as the band are technical in their delivery.

Of note, the band’s ability to fashion seemingly unworkable and discordant rhythms into tracks that have drive and progression is in rude health here. Long time admirers of the band- in particular back to their Solace days (now over a decade ago)- will warm to the frenetic drumbeats, the pummeling riffage and, yes, the groove. Don’t be misled, though. This remains a vicious and hostile record but one which grants the listener satisfaction once you get past the unquestionably rage filled and intense bleakness on offer.

The production job here is entirely apposite: it’s dirty, grimy and etched through with a sense of corrosive insidiousness. Technically, the band are as strong as they have ever been but it’s the ingenuity and angular creativeness beneath the obvious brutality that resonates. Their sound is a dirty one, wrought from a febrile and organic anger that doesn’t let up from the first note.

Cast the First Stone is unlikely to be the hopping on point for anyone who is looking to get into this sort of music but as an example of preaching to the converted this will have many people breathing a collective sigh of relief; they are back with a vengeance, as some would doubtless say. Don’t leave it so long until the next time, eh lads?

7.0/10

MAT DAVIES